L 


PERSONAL  RELIGION 


CHARLES  HERBERT  RUST 


LIBRARY  OF  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 


BR  124  .R87  1915 

Rust,  Charles  Herbert,  1869- 

Personal  religion 


PERSONAL 
RELIGION 


BY  y 

CHARLES  HERBERT  RUST 

MINISTER  AT  THE  SECOND  BAPTIST 
CHURCH,  ROCHESTER,  NEW  YORK 

Author  of  "Practical  Ideals  in  Evangelism" 
and  "The  Church  a  Field  of  Service" 


c>  r- .•".•. 


nOL-^.u;nr"' 


BOSTON:    THE  GORHAM  PRESS 
TORONTO:    THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  LIMITED 


Copyright,  1915,  by  Charles  H.  Rust 
All  Rights  Reserved 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


FOREWORD 

THAT  we  are  passing  through  a  transition  period 
in  Christian  thinking  is  well  known  to  every 
thoughtful  person.  Broader  ideas  of  religion  are 
general,  spiritual  authority  in  religion  is  being  rec- 
ognized, new  conceptions  of  the  Bible  are  in  vogue, 
the  immanence  of  God  is  emphasized,  the  ethical  side 
of  religion  is  made  prominent,  religious  experience 
from  the  standpoint  of  psychology,  is  being  studied, 
and  the  social  or  Kingdom  aspects  of  Jesus'  message 
and  ideal  are  constantly  before  us.  The  presence  of 
such  books  as  Clark's  '"Theology"  and  ''The  Ideal  of 
Jesus"  and  "Sixty  years  with  the  Bible" ;  Matthew's 
"The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order" ;  Stevens' 
"The  Psychology  of  the  Christian  Soul" ;  Anderson's 
"The  Man  of  Nazareth" ;  and  numerous  other  books 
of  similar  view  point,  makes  real  the  situation.  Our 
Colleges  and  Seminaries  are  sending  out  men  well 
versed  in  philosophy,  psychology,  science  and  the  re- 
sults of  historical  investigation.  They  are  expected 
to  adjust  their  Gospel  Message  to  the  modern  view 
point.  Many  of  them  wonder  where  they  are  and 
what  they  have  lost  or  gained  in  the  transition.  The 
place  of  "Personal  Religion"  in  this  universal  so- 
cial propaganda  is  not  clear  to  some  of  them.  Their 
teachers  have  not  failed.  It  simply  takes  time  to  get 
adjusted.  Then  there  are  many  of  our  pastors  who 
feel  they  cannot  have  the  same  idea  of  the  Bible 
or  of  Jesus'  religion  that  they  once  did  who  have 

3 


4  FOREWORD 

not  found  a  positive  Gospel  message  from  the  mod- 
ern standpoint,  and  there  are  numbers  of  our  loyal 
laymen  and  Sunday  School  workers  who  are  not  clear 
in  their  vision  of  the  truth  as  Jesus  taught  it.  In 
addition  to  these,  there  is  a  company  of  Evangelists 
who  do  not  accept  any  of  these  modern  conceptions 
but  antagonize  them  believing  them  to  be  of  the  very 
devil.  They  hold  tenaciously  to  the  old  because  they 
must  be  conservative,  not  realizing  that  the  progres- 
sive scholar  is  the  true  conservative  for  he  separates 
the  external  from  the  internal,  the  material  from  the 
spiritual,  and  the  superficial  from  the  vital.  They  do 
not  know  that  modern  man  is  honestly  seeking  to  be 
true  to  Jesus  and  to  save  that  which  is  religiously 
and  ethically  essential. 

It  is  to  help  these  perplexed  ones  and  to  call  the 
church  to  the  truth  of  Jesus'  fundamental  message  to 
the  world,  that  this  book  is  written.  The  author 
believes  most  sincerely  that  there  is  a  very  vital 
Gospel  message  in  the  modern  conception.  The  pro- 
gressive man  simply  must  be  intensely  evangelistic. 
He  must  get  men  individually  into  vital  touch  with 
the  Spirit  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  he  must  se- 
cure in  man  a  definite  life  ideal,  a  positive  alinement 
to  Jesus'  principles  and  purposes  and  a  real  experi- 
ence of  the  spiritual  power  of  Jesus,  or  man  cannot 
be  saved  and  the  Kingdom  cannot  come.  He  must 
emphasize  personal  religion.  Therefore  we  are  to 
believe  that  there  is  a  virile  evangelism  for  the 
church  today,  and  the  acceptation  of  true  progressive 
thought,  with  its  new  understanding  of  the  human 
personality,  its  scientific  investigation,  and  its  social 
emphasis,  not  only  does  not  abrogate  this  evangel- 
ism, but  when  deeply  considered,  demands  it. 


FOREWORD  5 

This  work  has  been  done  in  the  rush  of  a  busy 
pastorate  and  the  demands  of  the  larger  Kingdom 
service  which  have  been  pressing  upon  him,  but  it 
has  been  a  labor  of  love  for  The  Father,  for  Jesus, 
for  Humanity  and  for  the  Kingdom.  Gladly  do  I 
acknowledge  my  special  indebtedness  to  Drs,  Orchard, 
Phillips,  Cliiford,  Williams,  Wilberforce,  Tennant, 
Stevens,  Campbell,  Clow,  Harnack,  Eucken  and  oth- 
ers across  the  sea,  and  to  Drs.  Rauschenbusch,  Mat- 
thews, Clark,  Anderson,  Buckham,  Gladden,  Patten, 
Bowne,  Hyde,  and  others  in  America.  The  last  word 
on  the  subject  has  not  been  spoken  but  perhaps  some 
little  contribution  to  truth  and  Kingdom  advance- 
ment has  been  made  in  this  humble  volume. 

C.  H.  R. 

Rochester,  N.  Y. 

June  1,  1915 


CONTENTS 

HAFTEB  PAGE 

I.    Personal  Religion 11 

A  Life  Experience 18 

The  Relation  to  God 20 

Relation  to  One^s  Self 25 

Relation  to  Others 28 

II.    Salvation.    What  is  It  ? 31 

It  is  Spiritual  and  Moral  Soundness  or  Wholeness .  35 
It  is  the  Establishment  of  the  Supremacy  of  the  Spirit- 
ual in  Ldfe 37 

It  is  Harmony  with  God  in  the  Experience  of  a  New 

Creation 39 

It  is  Development  in  Christlikeness  or  Attainment  of 

Character 42 

III.  Self  and  Salvation 49 

The  Crux  of  the  Problem 52 

The  Rationale  of  the  Beneficiary  and  Self  Interest .  .  57 
The  Saving  of  the  True  Self  is  not  to  be  Considered 

Apart  from  All  Selves 62 

The  Salvation  of  Self  is  Realized  through  the  Appli- 
cation of  the  Law  of  Sacrifice 65 

IV.  The  Prepositions  of  Salvation 72 

V.    The  Essential  Atonement 94 

The  Essential  Atonement  Defined 101 

At-one-^ment  tuith  God  through  Reconciliation  with 

Man 104 

Righteousness  is  Reconciliation 112 

Repentance  is  Reconciliation 114 

VI.    The  Gospel  Message 118 

The  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom 127 

The  Gospel  of  the  Grace  of  God 129 

The  Gospel  of  the  Saviour 134 

7 


8  CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAOB 

VII.    The  Religion  op  the  Child 143 

The  Child  Human  Material 
The  Genius  of  Child  Humanity 
The  Child  Not  Conceived  in  Sin,  etc. 

VIII.    The  Christian  Motives 168 

Motive  the  Test  of  Character 

Lesser  Motives  for  Beginning  Christian  Life 

The  Higher  Christian  Motive  Should  Be  Present  at 

the  Outset 
The  Christian  Motive  for  Forsaking  Sin 
The  Christian  Motive  for  Giving  the  Life  to  Jesus 
The  Christian  Motive  for  Church  Membership 
Humanity's  Response  to  These  Motives  Evident 

IX.    The  Lakger  Repentance 194 

Sin  Not  Minimized  in  Preaching  of  To-day 

A  Larger  Repentance  Demanded 

Repentance  in  View  of  Extreme  Individualism 

Repentance  in  View  of  Secondary  Emphasis 

Repentance  in  View  of  Diversion  from  Great  Tasks 

Repentance  in  View  of  Sinful  Practices 

Repentance  in  View  of  War  Programmes 

X.    Soul  Winning  and  Life  Winning 221 

Soul  Winning 227 

Life  Winning 229 

To  Jesus'  Life  Conception  and  World  View  Point ..  231 

To  Receive  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  into  the  Heart 235 

To  Adopt  the  Ethical  Principles  of  Jesus  in  the  Life  237 

To  Devotion  to  Jesus'  Ideal 239 

XL    Making  Disciples 244 

The  Disciple  and  Jesus'  Plan 245 

The  Disciple  Defined 248 

XII.    The  Contagion  of  Personality 259 

The  Genius  of  this  Contagion 270 


PERSONAL  RELIGION 


PERSONAL   RELIGION 

CHAPTER    ONE 
PERSONAL  EELIGIO^ 

IT  is  well  known  today  that  religion  began  in  the 
social  consciousness  of  man.  It  was  primitively 
the  concern  of  the  whole  community  rather  than  sim- 
ply the  individual.  It  was  not  only  included  in  the 
community  consciousness  but  was  the  controlling  ele- 
ment in  that  consciousness.  It  was  so  thoroughly 
social  that  the  individual  had  a  right  to  religion  only 
as  he  was  a  member  of  the  community.  From  this 
we  perceive  that  the  present  day  social  emphasis  upon 
religious  life  is  taking  us  back  to  the  primitive  con- 
ception of  religion.  In  studying  the  history  of  Jew- 
ish religion  as  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  the 
scholarship  of  today  agrees  that  it  was  the  commu- 
nity, or  the  people  as  a  whole,  and  not  the  individual, 
which  had  a  relation  to  the  deity,  worshipped  him, 
was  acceptable  to  him  and  came  under  his  favor,  or 
sinned  against  him  and  called  forth  his  wrath.  Prof. 
Walter  R.  Betteridge  of  the  Rochester  Theological 
Seminary  has  recently  given  to  us  a  very  able  and 
valuable  treatise  on  the  emergence  of  the  individual 
in  Jewish  religion.  He  states  that  we  are  able  to  fix 
with  mathematical  exactness  the  date  when  the  centre 
of  emphasis  was  shifted  from  the  nation  to  the  in- 
dividual.    He  declares  that  the  prophets  Jeremiah 

11 


12  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

and  Ezekiel  were  the  first  teachers  of  the  new  doc- 
trine. Jer.  31 :  30  and  Ezek.  18 : 1-4.  Judaism  did 
not  easily  part  with  the  community  conception  of  re- 
ligion however.  It  still  insisted  that  only  as  one 
obeyed  the  community  and  submitted  to  its  ordinances 
^nd  requirements  could  he  have  access  to  God  and  be 
accepted  by  him.  We  are  glad  that  it  did  not  sep- 
arate entirely  from  social  religion,  for  there  is  a 
gTeat  truth  in  the  idea  that  the  individual  is  saved  as 
he  is  a  part  of  his  community.  The  fact  is  that 
both  are  true.  It  is  only  the  overemphasis  of  the 
social  or  the  individual  that  is  erroneous.  It  is  the 
happy  balancing  of  man's  individual  responsibility 
and  opportunity  before  God  and  man,  of  his  right  to 
respond  to  the  call  of  the  divine  and  human,  unhin- 
dered by  others  and  of  his  place  in  the  community 
of  his  fellows  that  represents  the  truth  of  the  matter. 
There  is  no  clash  between  the  individual  and  social 
conceptions  of  religion.  They  are  interdependent 
ideals.  Humanity  is  made  up  of  individuals.  We 
may  conceive  of  religious  life  just  as  broadly  as  pos- 
sible and  yet  never  for  a  moment  be  able  to  declare 
that  its  experience  is  not  fundamentally  one  of  the 
individual.  The  generalizing  of  a  religious  experi- 
ence does  not  make  the  religion  of  a  single  person 
unimportant,  for  it  is  only  as  the  individual  person 
comes  to  know  the  reality  of  religion,  that  humanity 
can  be  conscious  of  it.  Personal  religion  is  essential 
to  all  spiritual,  moral  and  social  progress  of  mankind. 
However  we  may  reason  en  masse  regarding  human- 
ity, we  should  not  overlook  this  fact.  As  religion  is 
developed  in  man's  personality,  God's  will  is  done  and 
human  life  progress  is  secured.  Some  one  has  said 
that  the  state  is  simply  the  'individual  writ  large." 


PERSONAL  RELIGION  13 

This  statement  makes  real  to  us  the  importance  of  the 
religious  life  of  that  individual.  Religion  to  be  uni- 
versalized must  be  personalized.  Jesus  spent  time 
with  single  persons.  He  never  belittled  the  power 
and  range  of  a  human  life.  To  have  religion  truly 
experienced  in  individual  human  lives  was  his  pas- 
sion. There  is  a  question  as  to  how  clearly  he  per- 
ceived and  endeavored  to  impress  upon  the  people 
around  him  any  comprehensive  social  program.  What 
he  did  surely  try  to  do  was  to  secure  in  humanity 
the  spiritualizing  of  all  himian  life  experiences  and 
relationships.  He  saw  no  way  for  that  to  be  done 
except  by  securing  this  ideal  and  purpose  in  the  in- 
dividual as  a  centre.  He  knew  his  Kingdom  de- 
pended upon  that.  To  have  people  vitally  and  genu- 
inely religious  persons,  satisfied  him.  Programs 
would  largely  take  care  of  themselves.  He  was  not 
obliged  to  think  them  out  in  detail. 

There  are  many  varying  views  of  personal  religion 
in  the  minds  of  good  people.  Perhaps  no  two  agree 
perfectly  as  to  what  the  qualities,  experience  and 
expression  of  it  are.  And  this  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  most  of  us  have  been  trained  in  the  school 
of  religion  since  babyhood.  We  find  that  definitions 
differ  radically.  Much  that  is  fundamental  to  one  is 
entirely  secondary  to  another.  One  person  is  confi- 
dent that  he  is  experiencing  personal  religion  because 
of  certain  beliefs  which  he  has  subscribed  to,  ordi- 
nances which  he  has  submitted  to,  and  activities  he 
has  become  engaged  in,  while  to  another  all  of  these 
appear  to  be  anything  but  evidences  that  he  knows 
what  religion  is.  So  much  that  is  not  religion,  has 
been  considered  religion,  that  some  people  have  about 
concluded  that  there  is  not  any  religion.     It  is  also 


14  PERSON"AL  RELIGION 

quite  true  that  many  good  people  are  sorely  perplexed 
regarding  it.  While  some  are  confident,  they  are 
greatly  troubled  and  in  serious  doubt.  When  they 
judge  by  some  standards  they  think  they  are 
religious  but  according  to  others  they  know  they 
are  not.  They  really  desire  to  be  sure  about 
the  matter.  They  have  great  concern  about  it, 
therefore  they  institute  thoughtful  inquiry  concern- 
ing it.  While  many  fail  to  understand  the  great  es- 
sentials of  personal  religion,  some  actually  turn  away 
from  it  because  of  the  evidence  of  sham  connected 
with  it  and  others  are  perplexed  even  to  doubt  while 
they  honestly  search  for  it.  It  behooves  all  to  make 
a  careful  study  of  it.  Deception  here  is  disastrous. 
Each  person  should  have  clear  ideas  of  its  fundamen- 
tal characteristics,  and  this  not  primarily  to  satisfy 
his  own  mind  and  heart  regarding  his  own  religious 
condition  so  that  he  may  feel  perfectly  safe,  but  that 
he  may  be  able  to  assist  others  who  are  struggling 
through  a  religious  maze  and  may  be  able  intelligently 
to  deal  with  inquiring  and  even  irreligious  humanity 
everywhere.  We  are  sure  that  God  does  not  want  us 
to  be  in  the  dark  regarding  this  most  important  mat- 
ter. There  is  light  somewhere.  Patient  research, 
thoughtful  consideration,  discrimination  in  elements, 
and  following  the  leadings  of  the  spirit  of  God,  will 
reward  every  honest  inquirer. 

We  naturally  turn  to  Jesus  for  a  definition  of  per- 
sonal religion.  For  while  we  recognize  the  univer- 
sality of  the  religious  impulse  and  that  all  men  are 
more  or  less  religious  and  that  religious  experience 
is  based  upon  the  fact  that  the  religious  sense  is  fun- 
damental to  all  human  life  and  seeks  for  an  expres- 
sion according  to  the  direction  given  to  it  by  enlight- 


PERSONAL  RELIGION  15 

enment,  environment  and  edncation,  yet  we  approach 
the  subject  from  the  standpoint  of  Christian  believers. 
We  ask  not  for  a  Pagan  interpretation  of  personal 
religion,  even  if  Plato  did  experience  it,  or  for  a 
Heathen  conception  of  it,  even  if  some  devout  Bud- 
dhists did  know^  a  little  of  it,  or  for  a  Mohammedan 
idea  of  it,  even  if  some  sincere  believer  in  Allah  the 
one  God,  does  know  the  true  God,  or  even  for  Juda- 
istic  thoughts  of  it,  even  if  Jeremiah  and  Isaiah  were 
truly  religious  and  did  worship  the  same  God  we  do. 
We  come  to  Christ  for  a  definition  because  he  is  the 
author  of  Christianity  which  to  us  is  the  very  high- 
est type  of  religion  that  the  world  knows.  We  shall 
find  that  Jesus'  definition  of  it,  is  not  so  profound  as 
some  have  thought.  The  world  has  made  religion 
far  more  difficult  to  perceive  and  experience  than 
Jesus  ever  did.  Some  have  made  it  quite  unnatural 
to  man,  far  beyond  his  normal  experience,  intricate 
and  complex.  Others  have  defined  it  in  terms  of 
metaphysics,  have  wrapped  it  in  ecclesiastical  cover- 
ings and  bound  it  with  creedal  red  tape,  so  that  a 
common  humanity  never  surely  knows  when  it  pos- 
sesses it.  It  is  not  to  be  confused  with  elaborate  theo- 
logical statements.  One  may  be  genuinely  and  sanely 
religious  and  have  a  very  simple  theology.  In  per- 
sonal religion  one  may  leave  entirely  outside  of  his 
concern,  great  masses  of  theological  speculation.  He 
need  not  bother  about  perfectly  defining  Deity,  he 
may  even  recognize  that  he  cannot  state  satisfactorily 
just  the  nature  of  Jesus  Christ  and  yet  he  may  be 
sure  of  the  experience  of  personal  religion.  Happy  is 
that  person  who  is  able  to  disentangle  religion  from 
speculative  theology,  and  thrice  happy  is  he  who  finds 
his  way  to  the  experience  of  this  religion  without 


16  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

trying  to  settle  all  the  problematical  questions  of  the 
moral  and  religious  world.  We  shall  find  that  Jesus' 
teachings  are  not  theological  discussions.  He  steers 
clear  of  speculation,  even  while  living  in  the  midst 
of  it.  After  he  died,  the  philosophically  inclined 
buried  his  beautiful,  simple  religious  ideas  in  specula- 
tion. We  are  not  bound  to  them.  It  is  our  privi- 
lege to  go  direct  to  the  synoptics  to  ascertain  what 
Jesus'  idea  of  personal  religion  was.  The  story  of 
his  life  will  reveal  to  us  his  ideas.  The  Gospel  record, 
while  not  complete,  is  sufficient  to  make  the  import 
of  that  life  plain.  He  gave  to  the  world  a  double  defi- 
nition of  religion.  One  in  his  utterances  regarding 
it  and  the  other  in  the  life  he  lived.  His  experience 
of  this  religion  was  expressed  in  his  life  and  that 
life  was  lived  naturally  and  in  sight  of  all  men  so 
that  they  could  see  what  it  was.  Jesus  staged  re- 
ligion in  actual  life,  not  as  a  drama  but  as  a  vital 
experience.  He  lived  it  out  in  the  open.  The  curtain 
was  up  every  day,  everywhere.  There  was  nothing 
behind  the  scenes.  He  never  closeted  his  religion. 
He  lived  out  his  own  life  where  he  was  as  naturally 
as  he  breathed.  The  Father's  purpose  was  to  per- 
sonify religion  in  him,  his  purpose  was  to  be  his  own 
religious  self  as  he  must  to  be  genuine.  The  utter- 
ances of  his  lips  were  those  which  came  logically 
from  his  own  experience  and  life.  There  was  no 
sham  in  his  soul  or  cant  in  his  words,  and  no  insin- 
cerity or  inconsistency  in  his  life.  Soul,  lips  and  life 
were  beautifully  blended  in  portraying  his  experience. 
They  spoke  one  language,  manifested  one  life  and 
breathed  forth  one  spirit.  And  his  experience  of  re- 
ligion was  the  deepest,  broadest  and  highest  that 
any  man  ever  has  had.     He  understood  the  genius 


PERSONAL  RELIGIOJ^  17 

of  personal  religion  as  no  one  ever  has  and  lived  it 
more  truly  than  any  one  ever  did.  Jesus  stands  out 
alone  in  the  world  as  the  one  who  has  given  to  man 
the  truest,  clearest,  most  discriminating  and  most  nat- 
ural embodiment  of  vital  religion  that  has  ever  come 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  human  race. 

This  remarkable  fact  gives  to  us  the  permanent  sig- 
nificance of  Jesus  to  the  religious  world.  No  where 
does  the  leading  personality  mean  more  than  in  the 
sphere  of  religion  and  this  is  in  perfect  accord  with 
the  chief  aim  of  religion  as  Eucken  so  forcibly  points 
out  in  his  philosophy  of  human  life.     He  states  that, 

"The  aim  of  religion,  and  to  many  an  apparently  hopeless 
aim,  is  to  lift  man  in  the  midst  of  human  existence  to  divin- 
ity; to  give  to  him  notwithstanding  his  dependence  upon  the 
course  of  the  world,  a  self  dependent  soul;  to  reveal  to  him 
in  the  very  midst  of  temporal  limitations  an  eternity.  This 
is  a  most  difficult  task  to  accomplish.  It  seems  impossible 
unless  miracles  occur.  But  it  is  first  accomplished  in  the 
life  and  being  of  creative  personalities.  Then  it  can  be  com- 
mimicated  to  others  from  them  and  finally  become  a  fact  for 
all  mankind.  Hence  the  spiritual  depths  of  religions  is  meas- 
ured and  their  character  determined  chiefly  by  the  personal 
traits  of  their  founders;  it  is  they  who  infuse  into  the  frame- 
work of  outward  ordinances  and  doctrinal  casings  the  inner 
life  they  need,  and  who  continually  bring  religion  back  from 
stereotyped  formulas  to  the  fresh  vigour  of  their  source," 

With  this  positively  true,  with  so  much  depending 
upon  the  personality  of  the  founder  of  a  religion,  we 
appreciate  the  incalculable  advantage  that  Christian- 
ity has  over  every  other  religion  of  the  world  in  pos- 
sessing, in  Jesus  Christ,  one  who  so  perfectly  em- 
bodied religion  in  experience  and  life.  He  lived  his 
religion  so  humanly,  humbly  and  naturally  and  yet 
so  divinely,  exaltedly  and  incomparably,  that  when 
the  world  desires  to  know  what  the  noblest  type  of 


18  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

personal  religion  is,  it  turns  to  him  with  absolute 
confidence,  satisfied  that  in  him  we  shall  see  lived 
out  among  men  in  simplicity  and  grandeur  the  eternal 
religion  of  the  one  true  God.  Therefore  a  study  of 
his  life  and  teachings  will  give  to  us  correct  ideas  of 
it,  and  a  reception  of  his  spirit  will  lead  U5  into  the 
experience  of  that  which  is  true  religion.  Surely 
there  is  no  better  way  of  ascertaining  what  we  desire 
to  know  than  by  analyzing  the  religion  he  lived  and 
there  is  no  surer  way  of  having  this  religion  as  our 
own  than  by  seeking  earnestly  the  experience  which 
he  had,  in  so  far  as  we  are  capacitated  to  receive  it. 
Personal  religion  is  the  religion  of  Jesus.  A  study 
of  his  life  and  a  response  to  his  spirit  lead  us  to  con- 
clude that  it  is  fundamentally  as  follows : — 

A    LIFE    EXPERIENCE 

It  is  not  accepting  a  doctrine  or  subscribing  to  an 
ecclesiastical  formula  or  submitting  to  a  rite.  It  is 
fundamentally  a  life.  The  life  of  living  human  be- 
ings, whose  minds  are  alert  and  whose  souls  are  ani- 
mated. Jesus'  religion  was  life.  It  was  life  in  him. 
It  was  nothing  external  to  him.  He  could  not  have 
lived  it  or  charged  others  with  it  if  it  had  not  been  a 
vital  part  of  his  own  essential  self.  So  personal  re- 
ligion today  is  life  in  man.  No  life,  then  no  religion. 
As  we  have  the  true  life  we  shall  have  religion.  It 
will  have  its  doctrines  and  principles  but  they  are 
simply  and  only  the  exposition  of  a  life  and  what  that 
life  implies.  It  will  surely  have,  as  it  has  had,  some 
institutions  and  organizations  connected  with  it  by 
which  it  expresses  itself,  but  they  are  simply  and 
only  the  servants  of  the  life.     Harnack  writes : — 


PERSONAL  RELIGION  19 

"Religion  is  just  one  simple  and  sublime  thing.  It  is  eter- 
nal life  in  the  midst  of  time." 

We  can  do  no  better  than  to  reiterate  this  great  truth. 
Personal  religion  is  eternal  life  in  time,  the  life  of 
the  Eternal  One  in  man,  in  time,  in  his  own  soul,  and 
in  all  his  activities.  It  is  human  life  lived  as  an 
eternal  fact.  Life  lived  as  if  it  were  eternal.  Lived 
humanly  and  lived  in  eternal  relationships,  lived  as 
if  it  were  to  live  on  forever.  Lived  as  human  life 
but  lived  divinely  in  view  of  all  human  relationships 
as  if  the  human  were  all  and  to  live  that  eternal  life 
in  the  human  to  its  full  was  the  greatest  experience 
of  life.  Thus  to  live,  divinely  and  humanly,  is  all  of 
life  and  all  of  religion. 

The  fact  that  Jesus'  religion  was  an  experience  in 
actual  life,  amid  human  surroundings,  must  not  be 
forgotten,  for  this  is  the  field  of  all  personal  religion 
which  humanity  is  to  know.  It  is  not  something 
which  is  to  come  hereafter  only  but  rather  is  to  be 
known  now.  It  is  an  experience  of  human  life  right 
here  on  this  earth.  Whatever  religion  one  pos- 
sesses will  be  at  least  begun  here.  It  is  not  something 
to  hope  for  but  to  have ;  not  something  outside  of  the 
world  arena  but  right  in  the  centre  of  it ;  not  some- 
thing apart  from  human  environment,  off  in  some 
ascetic  corner  but  something  which  has  to  do  with 
every  relation  of  the  individual  human  being  in  his 
earthly  career.  It  is  not  trying  to  be  somewhere 
else  in  mind  and  heart.  It  is  not  trying  to  get  away 
from  your  sphere  to  another.  It  is  having  a  religious 
experience  of  reality  here  in  all  the  common  every- 
day walks  of  daily  life.  It  is  not  an  experience  which 
comes  to  us  only  as  we  get  away  from  the  actual  world 
about  us  or  assume  an  abnonnal  attitude  toward  this 


20  PERSON'AL  RELIGION 

world  in  whicli  we  have  been  placed.  It  is  an  experi- 
ence of  adjustment  to  the  world  centre  and  world 
order  which  makes  a  religious  life  a  normal  and  nat- 
ural one  to  live  and  which  dignifies  every  activity 
as  sacred.  It  recognizes  that  in  the  purpose  of  God, 
religion  is  the  science  of  human  life  as  its  best.  It 
is  for  this  sphere.  It  is  for  this  human  life.  There  is 
nothing  the  matter  with  the  world  or  human  life  when 
both  are  conceived  of  religiously,  which  is  simply  be- 
ing thought  of  normally.  Human  relationships  are 
the  relationships  which  God  has  ordained  and  per- 
sonal religion  is  the  ideal  experience  of  a  human  be- 
ing in  these  relationships.  Human  relationships  are 
in  reality  personal  relationships  and  it  is  obvious  that 
all  the  activities  of  man  are  included  in  at  least  two 
of  these  personal  relationships,  those  of  man  with 
God  and  man  with  man,  and  a  third  has  been  sug- 
gested, namely  man  with  himself.  In  these  three 
circles  of  human  relationships,  his  experience  of  per- 
sonal religion  will  be  realized.  He  will  be  religious 
as  he  approximates  in  these  relationships  the  religious 
experience  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  our  recognized 
ideal. 

THE    RELATION    TO    GOD 

Jesus  made  it  very  plain  that  the  relation  to  God 
was  fundamental  in  personal  religion.  He  experi- 
enced a  close  relationship  to  his  Heavenly  Father  and 
every  man  who  accepts  Christ  must  have  more  or  less 
of  the  same  experience.  The  man  who  is  not  religious 
refuses  to  recognize  his  relationship  to  God  and  lives 
as  if  he  had  none.  The  man  who  is  religious  enters 
into  a  proper  relationship  to  his  Heavenly  Father. 
This  is  a  distinctive  characteristic.     Without  it  we 


PERSONAL  RELIGION  21 

can  hardly  consider  any  man,  regardless  of  how  excel- 
lent he  may  be,  religious.  To  be  religious  without 
a  sense  of  God  relationship  is  to  have  a  father  and  not 
know  him  or  care  anything  about  him.  A  filial  con- 
sciousness is  quite  indispensable  in  religion.  It  will 
be  manifested  in  at  least  five  ways.  Probably  the 
very  first  expression  of  filial  consciousness  will  be 
that  of  reverence  for  the  father.  The  moment  man 
is  really  conscious  that  he  has  a  Heavenly  Father,  he 
will  realize  something  of  the  majesty  of  his  person- 
ality. He  will  be  impressed  as  he  considers  the  in- 
finiteness  of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  the  powers  of  the 
Creator  as  he  beholds  the  wonders  of  creation  will 
overawe  him  and  a  sense  of  his  own  littleness  in 
comparison  to  the  Father's  greatness,  will  lead  him 
to  revere  him.  Then  a  further  consideration  of  his 
character,  his  divine  goodness  and  his  love  for  his 
children  will  lead  to  a  reverence  which  will  crystallize 
into  genuine  worship.  This  worship  will  not  be  su- 
perstitious or  based  upon  fear,  it  will  be  the  logical 
response  of  the  child  who  recognizes  and  wonders  at 
the  power,  nature  and  disposition  of  his  Heavenly 
Father.  It  will  be  the  result  of  a  conclusion  that  the 
infinite  is  worthy  of  the  worship  and  homage  of  the 
finite.  Reverence  and  worship  will  appear  to  him  the 
reasonable  attitude  of  the  creature  to  the  Creator,  the 
child  to  the  Father.  This  is  the  beginning  of  religion. 
Following  this  will  be  the  attitude  of  confidence  in 
the  Father.  Implicit  trust  is  the  legitimate  out- 
come of  true  reverence.  Faith  in  God  becomes  a  ra- 
tional attitude  for  the  child  to  assume.  He  believes 
that  God  is  good,  that  his  spirit  is  love,  that  his  na- 
ture is  righteous,  that  his  will  is  wisest  and  best  and 
that  he  has  every  reason  to  impose  absolute  confidence 


22  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

in  him.  There  will  be  a  happy  sense  of  security  and 
a  quiet  repose  in  his  providences.  There  will  be  a 
conscious  dependence  upon  him  and  genuine  faith  in 
him.  The  child  will  take  his  word  as  final,  will  not 
ask  for  explanations  of  everything  and  will  place  the 
life  in  his  keeping  with  just  as  much  assurance  as  the 
child  of  an  earthly  parent  trusts  his  fond  father.  He 
will  see  in  Jesus  Christ  the  revelation  of  the  Father 
whom  he  is  to  trust  and  faith  in  Christ  will  actually 
be  faith  in  the  God  of  goodness  and  love — such  a 
faith  as  abandons  the  soul  and  life  to  his  direction 
and  development. 

Another  manifestation  of  this  filial  consciousness 
will  be  that  of  harmony  with  the  Father.  Whatever 
moral  and  spiritual  chasm  there  has  been  between  the 
father  and  the  child,  will  be  bridged.  There  will  be 
an  experience  of  oneness.  That  oneness  will  be  one 
of  disposition  and  purpose.  The  child  will  enter  into 
communion  with  the  father,  they  will  live  together 
in  the  world.  They  will  feel  at  home.  Prayer  will  be 
a  natural  spiritual  intercourse.  The  child  will,  as  the 
result  of  this  union,  take  on  the  nature  of  the  father, 
possess  his  spirit  and  become  absorbed  in  his  plans. 
There  will  be  a  sense  of  the  correlation  of  the  life 
of  the  individual  to  the  life  of  God.  In  many  a  life 
this  experience  will  be  revolutionary.  It  will  be  a 
cataclysmic  event.  It  will  be  a  mighty  transforma- 
tion into  the  spirit  and  will  of  God.  To  others  it 
will  be  the  same  result  but  will  come  to  be  without 
any  conscious  revolution.  In  these  it  will  be  the  log- 
ical and  normal  transition  into  a  better  understanding 
of  the  Father  and  a  more  intelligent  harmonizing  of 
the  soul  and  life  with  his.  There  will  be  no  strain 
about  it.     Simply  the  child's  answer  to  the  Father  to 


PERSONAL  RELIGION  23 

come  closer  to  him  and  to  know  him  in  a  larger  way 
and  to  enter  into  his  spirit  and  will  more  fully  as  he 
pardons  and  promises  to  help  and  develop.  How  dif- 
ferent was  Jesus'  conception  of  union  with  the  Father 
from  that  of  Confucius  who  said,  "Respect  the  Gods, 
but  have  as  little  to  do  with  them  as  possible." 

Furthermore  this  filial  consciousness  will  reveal  an 
actual  love  for  God.  Reverence  for,  trust  in,  and 
union  with  him  will  inevitably  develop  this  love.  It 
will  not  be  forced  for  it  cannot  be.  Love  will  come 
as  it  comes  with  us  today.  We  do  not  love  those  whom 
we  do  not  know  exist.  We  love  people  as  we  come 
to  meet  them,  understand  them,  deal  with  them  and 
trust  them.  It  is  the  same  with  our  relation  to  God. 
But  one  asks  how  can  we  come  to  know  and  under- 
stand God  so  as  to  love  him.  As  we  study  Jesus 
Christ  we  see  in  him  the  Father.  He  came  to  un- 
bosom or  declare  the  Father.  Jesus  did  not  come 
primarily  to  secure  man's  belief  in  himself,  he  came 
to  get  men  to  believe  in  God.  Jesus  did  not  live  that 
the  world  might  forever  talk  of  how  good  and  true  and 
noble  he  was,  he  lived  among  men  as  the  sent  one 
from  God,  that  everyone  might  see  in  him  a  picture  of 
the  Father  and  might  forever  talk  of  how  good  and 
noble  and  true  the  Father  was.  Remember  it  was 
the  God  consciousness  of  Jesus  that  made  him  what 
he  was.  Therefore  he  portrayed  the  truth  about  God. 
He  who  reads  and  studies  and  then  understands 
Jesus,  understands  God.  He  who  reveres  and  trusts 
Jesus  reveres  and  trusts  God,  and  he  who  loves  Jesus, 
loves  God.  How  can  we  love  Jesus  when  he  is  not 
here  ?  One  may  love  his  ideals,  his  spirit,  and  his 
character.  He  who  does,  loves  the  Father.  More 
than  this,  he  who  loves  the  good  in  the  world,  is  pas- 


24  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

sionately  fond  of  righteousness,  finds  his  heart  going 
out  to  humanity  as  Jesus  did,  may  know  that  he  loves 
what  Jesus  loves  and  thus  what  the  Father  loved 
and  has  in  him  the  love  of  God,  and  that  this  is  the 
very  essence  of  religion. 

Still  another  and  very  important  characteristic  of 
filial  consciousness  will  be  that  of  loyalty.  The  issue 
of  unity  and  love  will  be  fidelity.  To  do  this  Father's 
will  in  real  life  will  be  the  supreme  desire  of  the 
one  who  truly  experiences  this  filial  consciousness. 
Jesus'  life  was  singularly  objective.  He  was  in  clos- 
est harmony  with  his  Father  and  knew  the  subjective 
experience  of  spiritual  union  with  him,  but  it  was 
not  a  moody  mysticism  or  an  impractical  emotional- 
ism. His  fellowship  with  God  issued  naturally  and 
logically  in  objective  loyalty  to  his  will.  He  said,  you 
remember,  "My  food  is  to  do  the  will  of  my  sender 
and  to  accomplish  his  work."  John  4 :  34.  His  ober 
dience  to  God  was  the  proof  of  his  oneness  with  the 
Father.  His  religion  would  have  been  valueless  with- 
out this.  Union  with  God  implies  this.  And  we  may 
consider  ours  the  same  today.  Only  those  who  do  the 
will  of  God  are  truly  in  harmony  with  him.  Matt. 
7 :  21.  The  test  of  religion  is  not  revealed  in  the  con- 
fessions of  St.  Augustine  or  necessarily  in  the  rhap- 
sodies of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  but  rather  in  the  honest 
loyalty  to  what  one  conceives  to  be  the  will  of  God 
for  us  in  this  world.  And  just  as  truly  does  love 
express  itself  in  loyalty.  Those  who  love  will  be  on 
the  alert  to  please,  to  work  for  and  to  seek  first  the 
accomplishment  of  the  Father's  purposes.  Therefore 
we  may  know  in  very  truth  that  personal  religion 
is  an  experience  in  which  a  filial  consciousness  of 
God  is  realized  in  reverence  of  him,  confidence  in 


PERSONAL  RELIGION  25 

him,  harmony  with  him,  love  for  him,  and  loyalty 
to  him.  This  is  the  very  foundation  of  the  religion 
which  we  are  inquiring  about.  As  one  experiences 
this  he  knows  something  of  personal  religion. 

RELATION    TO    ONe's    SELF 

Personal  religion  demands  something  of  one's  self. 
It  leads  the  individual  to  expect  something  in  himself 
which  is  vitally  a  part  of  himself.  His  religious  ex- 
perience will  move  within  the  arena  of  his  own  per- 
sonality. There  will  be  something  going  on  there 
which  is  a  reality  even  if  it  is  something  which  one  is 
not  able  perfectly  to  describe.  Personal  religion  with- 
out an  experience  of  some  kind  within  one's  self  is  not 
the  religion  that  Jesus  knew  or  advocated  for  others. 
Some  may  name  it  "the  new  birth,"  others  conver- 
sion, and  still  others  "getting  religion,"  it  really  mat- 
ters not  what  the  name  is,  it  is  something.  It  is  an 
experience  of  self  and  effective  within  one's  self.  It 
is  not  necessarily  some  great  rush  of  feeling  or  some 
peculiar  ecstasy  of  soul.  Such  experiences  are  de- 
termined by  the  peculiar  make  up  and  capacity  of 
the  personality.  The  same  experience  of  religion  will 
be  manifested  differently  in  several  persons.  There 
will  be  some  effect  upon  self  necessary  in  each  case  but 
there  will  be  superfluous  accompaniments  which  re- 
sult entirely  from  the  mental  and  emotional  natures 
of  the  persons  in  whom  the  experience  is  being  real- 
ized. The  case  of  Hannah  Whithall  Smith  is  in 
point.     She  writes, — 

"Suddenly  something  happened  to  me.  What  it  was  or  how 
it  came,  I  had  no  idea,  but  somehow  an  inner  eye  seemed  to 
be  opened  in  my  soul,  and  I  seemed  to  see  that  after  all  God 


26  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

was  fact — the  bottom  of  all  facts — and  that  the  only  thing 
to  do  was  to  find  out  all  about  him.  It  was  not  a  pious  feel- 
ing such  as  I  was  looking  for,  but  it  was  a  conviction — just 
such  a  conviction  as  comes  to  one  when  a  mathematical  prob- 
lem is  suddenly  solved.  One  does  not  feel  that  it  is  solved, 
but  one  knows  it  and  there  can  be  no  further  question." 

This  woman  of  God  was  brought  up  in  a  Quaker 
atmosphere.  From  sixteen  to  twenty-six  years  of  age, 
her  religion  was  nothing,  as  she  says,  "but  a  religion 
of  trying  to  feel."  Then  came  this  sudden  conversion 
and  wonderful  illumination  which  she  has  described. 
Continued  study  of  the  Bible  brought  further  flashes 
of  light  and  she  became  happy  in  what  was  to  her 
personal  religion.  But  there  are  many  who  never 
have  had  even  these  experiences  which  she  has  out- 
lined. Their  struggle  for  years  has  been  to  know 
God  in  their  own  consciousness  as  others  have  de- 
clared they  have  known  him  and  yet  they  live  on  with- 
out realizing  the  deepest  desires  of  their  hearts.  They 
have  at  times  been  led  to  doubt  the  possibility  of  ever 
experiencing  personal  religion  just  because  they  can- 
not secure  in  their  own  natures  the  feelings,  the  joys, 
the  ecstasies  of  soul  and  life  which  others  refer  to 
with  so  much  assurance.  This  fact  of  troubled  souls 
who  possess  religious  aspirations  leads  us  to  state  that 
thoughtful  consideration  of  just  what  is  essential  in 
this  self  religious  experience  will  help  us  greatly. 

First  of  all,  we  should  recognize  the  mystic  side  of 
self  and  know  that  to  some  people  the  mystical  experi- 
ence is  very  real.  We  need  not  deny  their  confes- 
sions and  descriptions  of  soul  delight.  We  are  led 
however  to  ask,  What  is  it  in  the  personality  that 
needs  most  to  be  seriously  affected  to  have  one  experi- 
ence personal  religion?  Surely  the  fundamental 
thing  is  not  physical,  for  many  a  cripple  can  be  a 


PERSOI^AL  RELIGION  2Y 

saint;  it  is  not  mystical  for  some  of  God's  greatest 
men  and  women  have  been  conscious  of  a  lack  of 
this  element  in  their  constitutions ;  and  it  is  not  emo- 
tional for  hosts  of  Jesus'  noblest  followers  have  la- 
bored sincerely  and  devotedly  for  him  without  any 
great  feeling.  Then  what  is  it  ?  The  answer  is,  the 
mind,  the  will,  the  spiritual  nature  and  the  conscience. 
Jesus'  appeal  was  constantly  to  these.  He  ever  sought 
to  turn  men's  mind  to  truth  and  righteousness,  to  se- 
cure in  their  spiritual  nature  a  response  to  them, 
to  arouse  the  ethical  consciousness  and  to  call  the  will 
into  action  toward  holy  ends.  Conversion  really 
means  a  change  of  mind.  It  is  expressed  in  ethical 
realms.  It  is  the  result  of  spiritual  evolutions  and 
transformations  to  be  sure,  but  these  are  not  to  con- 
cern us.  I  do  not  know  as  Jesus  understood  all  the 
processes  by  which  his  ideal  was  to  be  secured  in 
man.  The  essential  result  which  we  must  have  in 
ourselves,  if  we  are  to  know  the  experience  of  per- 
sonal religion,  is  the  ethical  and  spiritual  direction 
of  life.  We  must  see  within  ourselves,  desires  for 
goodness,  a  hatred  of  sham,  a  purpose  to  be  pure, 
righteous  and  noble  as  men  and  women,  to  live  for 
that  which  is  best  and  highest.  This  is  an  evidence 
of  personal  religion  upon  which  we  may  rely.  Mys- 
ticism and  emotional  delights  of  soul  are  not  sure 
tests.  They  may  or  may  not  accompany  a  true  re- 
ligious experience.  One  may  have  them  and  yet  not 
be  personally  religious.  But  no  man  or  woman  who 
has  a  sensitive  conscience,  who  loves  goodness,  who 
seeks  to  live  for  that  which  is  Christlike  and  humane, 
who  loves  not  war,  and  envy  and  selfishness,  but 
rather  peace,  love  and  unselfishness,  is  without  per- 
sonal religion.     I  refer  not  to  the  person  who  lives 


28  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

fairly  decently  because  of  home  environment  or  sim- 
ply to  maintain  an  outward  reputation,  but  the  one 
whose  life  reveals  a  passion  for  righteousness  and  a 
devotion  to  Godliness.  Not  a  spasmodic  disposition 
of  kindness  and  purity  of  life,  but  a  temper,  a  trend, 
a  characteristic  movement  of  the  soul  and  life  toward 
the  higher  values  and  nobler  objectives.  To  secure 
this  there  will  be  a  surrender  to  Christ  in  penitence 
and  a  definite  reception  of  his  spirit  into  the  life. 
This  will  be  a  spiritual  experience  but  not  necessarily 
mystical.    It  must  be  ethical. 

RELATION    TO    OTHEES 

Dr.  Soares  of  Chicago  University  once  stated  that 
religious  activity  takes  three  forms  according  to  the 
conception  of  religion  that  one  has,  namely  the  ritual- 
istic, the  pietistic  and  the  socialistic. 

When  religion  is  conceived  of  primarily  as  a  relationship 
between  God  and  man,  which  is  conditioned  upon  the  per- 
formance of  proper  acts  of  worship,  its  prevailing  activity  is 
of  course  the  due  observance  of  carefully  regulated  ritualistic 
requirements.  Observance  of  days,  set  forms  of  prayer  and 
sacramental  acts,  etc.     This  is  ritualistic. 

When  religion  is  thought  of  as  an  immediate  relationship 
of  God  and  man,  father  and  child,  Redeemer  and  redeemed, 
its  activity  is  likely  to  be  that  of  emotional  expression.  Ex- 
tempore prayer,  outbursts  of  song,  and  testimonies  of  emo- 
tional experience.     This  is  pietistic. 

When  religion  is  considered  to  be  a  social  matter,  an  atti- 
tude of  man  towards  his  fellows,  a  realization  of  duty  in 
human  relationships,  the  activities  will  be  those  of  philan- 
thropy, goodwill  toward  others  expressed  in  kind  acts  and 
efforts  for  social  justice  and  human  betterment.  This  is  so- 
cialistic. 

Personal  religion  may  be  a  sensible  harmonizing  of 
all  three.     The  last  one  is  very  important.     No  one 


PEKSONAL  RELIGION  29 

knows  what  religion  is  unless  his  life  is  rightly  re- 
lated to  his  fellowmen.  Ethics  signifies  duty  to  oth- 
ers. The  ethical  objective  of  Jesus  is  not  secured  in 
you  and  me  unless  our  duty  toward  others  is  dis- 
charged. It  is  only  as  we  manifest  good  will  toward 
men,  seek  their  welfare  and  blessing,  that  we  are  re- 
ligious. Religion  is  not  something  which  a  man  re- 
ceives, tucks  away  in  his  soul  as  a  preservative  against 
moral  and  spiritual  decay.  It  is  something  which 
springs  out  of  his  soul  and  rushes  forth  to  others. 
There  is  no  antagonism  between  personal  and  social 
religion.  The  one  is  simply  impossible  without  the 
other.  In  fact  the  second  is  the  proof  of  the  first. 
Personal  communion  with  God  and  personal  kindness 
to  men  are  complementary.  Religion  is  not  some  iso- 
lated thing.  It  cannot  be  put  into  separate  human 
cases,  sealed  up  and  shipped  to  Heaven.  It  must  be 
expressed  socially.  Its  movement  is  toward  and 
through  humanity,  not  away  from  it.  The  very  pur- 
pose of  it  is  to  bring  humanity  into  right  relations. 
This  cannot  be  done  unless  it  is  manifested  in  the  eth- 
ical realms  of  life  as  men  touch  men  daily.  The 
religion  that  does  not  make  men  loving  to  their  fel- 
lowmen, that  does  not  save  them  from  crookedness  in 
business  dealings  with  other  men,  that  does  not  make 
them  sympathetic  with  other  men,  that  does  not  lead 
them  to  work  for  the  interests  of  their  fellowmen  and 
that  does  not  make  them  think  of  and  serve  their  fel- 
lowmen, is  no  religion  at  all, — but  superstition  based 
on  selfishness.  It  is  not  the  religion  of  Jesus.  AVe  may 
truly  state  therefore  that  an  individual  experiences 
personal  religion  when  he  establishes  his  life  on  the 
solid  basis  of  faith  in  and  communion  with  God 
his  Heavenly  Father;  when  he  purposes  to  live  that 


30  PEKSONAL  RELIGION 

life  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  God  as  revealed 
through  Jesus  Christ ;  when  he  accepts  into  that  life 
the  spiritual  forces  of  God  necessary  to  conform  that 
life  in  its  inner  character  to  the  ideal  or  likeness  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  when  he  makes  good  will  and  broth- 
erly kindness  toward  all  men  and  sei*vice  in  the  in- 
terest of  all  men,  the  distinctive  temper  and  trend 
of  that  life  course.  Where  you  find  such  people,  you 
may  conclude  that  they  are  personally  religious.  They 
are  true  Christians.  They  are  becoming  what  Jesus 
would  have  them.  They  are  approximating  the  life 
he  lived  and  they  are  experiencing  something  of  the 
religion  that  he  did,  they  are  becoming  like  Christ. 
This  is  the  definition  of  personal  religion  which  every 
preacher  should  make  plain  to  his  congregation  and 
every  evangelist  to  his  crowds  of  people.  This  is  the 
ideal  of  religion  which  every  church  worker  should 
seek  to  secure  in  Sunday  School  scholar  and  this  is 
the  conception  of  religion  which  our  Missionary  work- 
ers should  seek  to  universalize  throughout  the  world. 
People  who  have  this  idea  and  this  experience  of  re- 
ligion are  the  ones  we  wish  to  receive  into  our 
churches.  They  are  the  ones  to  teach  the  scholars  in 
Sunday  Schools,  to  fill  places  on  our  official  boards, 
to  represent  the  church  in  the  world  at  large,  and  to 
devote  their  energies  to  making  Christ's  truth  real 
everywhere.  Well  may  we  examine  our  own  religion 
to  ascertain  if  it  is  the  right  kind,  well  may  we  pray 
for  a  revival  of  such  religion  throughout  the  world 
and  well  may  we  give  our  time  and  energies  to  bring- 
ing humanity  to  such  a  conception  and  experience  of 
religion. 


CHAPTER    TWO 
SALVATION.     WHAT  IS  IT? 

ONE  of  the  common  words  in  the  vernacular  of 
religion  and  particularly  of  Christianity,  is  the 
word  ''salvation."  We  are  accustomed  often  to  hear 
such  expressions  as  these,  "I  was  saved,"  "I  am 
saved,"  "I  hope  to  be  saved,"  "I  have  found  salva- 
tion." Whatever  ideas  of  it  may  be  held  by  individu- 
als or  churches,  it  is  true  that  the  word  expresses  the 
great  central  objective  of  Christianity.  Therefore  it 
is  important  that  each  person  understands  what  it  im- 
plies. We  shall  not  discuss  the  faith  in  Jesus  and 
the  spiritual  processes  which  are  necessary  to  secure 
salvation  for  we  are  now  simply  seeking  a  definition 
of  it.  It  will  be  wise  however  to  state  that  the  process 
must  not  be  confused  with  the  objective.  Salvation 
is  the  goal  to  which  Jesus  is  leading  mankind.  Faith 
in  Jesus  is  indispensable  to  the  securing  of  that  ob- 
jective, but  it  is  not  salvation  itself.  It  is  the  in- 
troduction to  the  process  which  shall,  under  the  influ- 
ence and  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  pro- 
duce in  man  that  which  Jesus  came  to  make  real 
within  him.  Faith  in  Jesus  puts  man  in  touch  with 
the  One  whom  he  must  have  to  actualize  the  goal  or 
the  salvation  which  the  Father  has  for  him.  Faith 
in  Jesus  should  therefore  be  considered  vital  to  man's 
salvation.  We  desire  to  know  what  condition  the  in- 
dividual and  humanity  in  general,  must  be  in  to  ex- 
perience the  salvation  that  Jesus  came  to  lead  man- 

31 


32  PEKSONAL  KELIGION 

kind  into.  When  can  we  say  humanity  is  saved? 
A  century  ago  preachers  and  workers  knew  what  they 
were  trying  to  do  and  the  people  who  heard  them  un- 
derstood what  they  implied  by  salvation.  Today  con- 
ceptions may  have  changed,  but  we  are  still  seeking 
to  save  and  there  is  no  reason  why  either  preacher 
or  individual  hearer  should  be  mistaken  about  the 
significance  of  this  well  known  term.  We  are  led 
to  state  first  of  all  that  in  the  Semitic  religions  and  in 
the  Old  Testament  before  the  dawning  of  the  hope  of 
immortality,  salvation  referred  chiefly  to  this  life.  It 
implied  the  removal  of  the  effects  of  sin  so  that  man 
could  live  under  the  favor  of  the  gods.  To  escape  the 
judgments  of  capricious  Gods  during  life  was  its  sig- 
nificance to  the  people  of  that  time.  In  the  Mystery 
Religions  which  surrounded  Christianity  at  its  incep- 
tion, this  word  had  its  place.  Their  chief  aim  was 
to  offer  salvation  to  those  who  became  duly  initiated 
and  it  implied  to  them  primarily  deliverance  from  the 
tyranny  of  an  omnipotent  Fate,  which  might  crush  a 
human  life  at  any  moment.  Death,  with  its  unknown 
terrors,  would  be  Fate's  terrible  visitation.  Hence  to 
have  assurance  of  life  after  death,  or  a  victorious  im- 
mortality would  mean  salvation.  As  they  might  die 
any  moment  in  the  grip  of  relentless  fate,  salvation 
was  deliverance  from  that  fate. 

We  find  considerable  in  the  Christian  conception 
of  salvation  which  reveals  more  or  less  of  a  similarity 
to  that  of  the  Mystery  Religions.  It  is  not  hard  to 
produce  passage  after  passage  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment which  implies  that  in  the  thought  of  the  writer 
it  was  synonymous  to  the  expression  "escape  from  the 
wrath  of  God."  There  was  one  who  could  and  would 
crush.    To  escape  his  wrath  was  salvation.    Since  that 


SALVATION".     WHAT^  IS  IT?  33 

day  exhorters  and  revivalists  have  cried  out  loudly 
"flee  from  the  wrath  to  come"  and  thousands  have 
been  brought  to  their  knees  in  tears  and  fear  under 
their  powerful  appeals,  until  the  idea  that  salvation 
implied  primarily  deliverance  from  some  impending 
doom  to  be  meted  out  by  a  God  of  vengeance,  was  the 
commonly  accepted  definition  of  it.  To  escape  pun- 
ishment and  that  punishment  something  which  was  to 
be  inflicted  in  some  future  state,  has  been  the  mean- 
ing of  salvation  to  millions  of  good  Christian  people. 
A  study  of  Calvin  and  his  followers  makes  it  clear 
that  in  his  conception  of  salvation,  the  primary 
thought  was  the  escape  from  future  punishment  and 
the  joy  of  eternal  bliss. 

We  are  not  to  ridicule  the  facts  of  the  awfulness  of 
sin  and  its  consequences  or  belittle  the  truth  concern- 
ing God's  wrath  (the  reaction  of  the  Divine  nature 
against  sin)  or  to  declare  that  there  is  no  solemn  truth 
in  the  idea  that  salvation  has  to  do  with  immortality 
and  deliverance  from  sin's  eternal  effects.  Far  be  it 
from  us  to  suggest  such  thoughts.  The  errors  in  this 
conception  are  largely  in  the  view  of  our  Heavenly 
Father  that  it  portrays,  the  emphasis  it  places  upon 
future  punishment  rather  than  present,  and  the  lim- 
ited idea  of  salvation  which  it  fosters.  The  relation 
of  a  holy,  loving  Heavenly  Father  to  his  child,  be  that 
child  what  he  may  be,  must  form  the  basis  of  our  con- 
ception of  salvation,  and  his  divine  will  for  us  both 
in  the  present  and  the  future  of  salvation,  and  must 
define  the  nature  and  scope  of  it.  Spinoza  was  correct 
when  he  said  "The  love  of  God  ought  to  occupy  the 
soul  more  than  anything  else."  "Our  salvation,  our 
happiness,  our  liberty  consist  in  a  constant  and  eternal 
love  of  God,  or  if  you  will,  in  God's  love  for  us." 


34  PERSOIsrAL  RELIGION 

This  is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  salvation.  In 
commencing  our  discussion  of  the  definition  of  salva- 
tion, as  we  progi'ess  and  as  we  close  it,  we  are  to  think 
in  terms  of  the  love  of  God  and  we  shall  ever  have 
in  mind  the  ideal  that  love  has  conceived  and  re- 
vealed. Salvation  is  the  holy  objective  which  a  true 
Heavenly  Father  who  has  our  interests  at  heart,  plans 
for  us,  not  something  for  us  to  secure  apart  from 
him  or  despite  him,  not  so  much  something  we  are 
endeavoring  to  obtain  from  him  but  that  which  he  is 
seeking  to  accomplish  in  us.  And  we  should  remem- 
ber that  in  Jesus'  ideas  we  have  the  will  of  God  mani- 
fested to  us.  In  Jesus  himself  we  have  his  salvation 
goal  outlined  and  personified. 

We  also  quickly  recognize  that  any  idea  of  salvation 
which  confines  itself  to  the  present  merely,  and  for- 
gets the  long  future,  is  at  once  inadequate  and  far 
from  being  satisfactory  but  we  would  impress  upon 
all  the  fact  that  some  previous  conceptions  have  been 
altogether  too  limited  and  the  demand  is  for  a  more 
rational  and  more  Christian  conception  of  it.  We 
need  Jesus'  view  of  it.  Any  other  will  not  be  ade- 
quate. To  some  it  may  seem  easy  to  furnish  Jesus' 
idea  of  it,  to  others  it  may  be  very  difiicult  because 
in  the  entire  Gospel  record,  Jesus  uses  the  word  just 
once,  Luke  19  : 1,  in  that  memorable  utterance  to  Zac- 
cheus,  "Today  is  salvation  come  to  this  house."  In 
this  statement  from  the  lips  of  Jesus,  we  note  that 
emphasis  is  placed  upon  the  present.  However, 
Jesus,  while  not  using  the  word  often,  did  give  to  his 
disciples  and  others  his  thoughts  regarding  his  objec- 
tive in  coming  to  earth.  He  referred  many  times 
to  the  "saved"  and  a  thoughtful  study  of  his  words 
leaves  us  in  no  doubt  about  his  idea  of  salvation.    He 


SALVATION.     WHAT  IS  IT?  35 

was  singularly  free  from  involved  sentences  and  inex- 
plicable terms  and  the  trend  of  his  teaching  is  very 
evident.  From  that  trend  we  learn  that  Salvation 
is  as  follows : — • 

IT  IS  SPIRITUAL  AND  MORAL  SOUNDNESS  OR 

WHOLENESS  ^ 

To  be  "saved"  signifies  just  this.  It  is  more  than 
safety.  It  is  a  condition  which  implies  moral  and 
spiritual  safety.  It  implies  to  be  made  morally  sound, 
to  be  brought  to  a  state  of  spiritual  health.  The  man 
who  is  safe  from  sickness  is  the  physically  healthy 
man.  One  is  saved  as  he  is  made  sound  and  kept 
sound.  The  Greek  word  "sozo"  used  to  describe  sal- 
vation, translated  "saved,"  is  found  some  seventy-five 
times  in  the  JSTew  Testament  and  the  etymology  of  the 
word  implies  this  wholeness  of  spiritual  and  moral 
life.  It  makes  plain  that  salvation  is  some  condition 
of  the  person  himself  which  makes  him  safe.  As  fire 
cannot  burn  asbestos  because  it  is  made  of  materials 
which  will  not  respond  to  it,  so  nothing  can  harm  the 
individual  who  is  morally  sound  because  there  is 
nothing  in  him  to  respond  to  the  immoral.  Thus  men 
are  made  safe  by  being  made  sound.  Jesus  was  all  the 
time  talking  to  people  of  heart  and  soul  soundness. 
He  came  on  purpose  to  make  known  to  them  the  fact 
that  the  Father's  will  for  them  was  to  be  made  true 
and  pure  at  heart,  for  no  moral  safety  could  come  to 
them  unless  this  were  true,  therefore  salvation  was 
fundamentally  a  condition  of  the  inmost  life  of  the  in- 
dividual. Jesus  did  not  know  of  any  salvation  which 
was  not  an  actual  experience  of  their  own  lives.  ISTo 
person  could  be  saved  unless  he  was  in  a  condition 


36  PEESONAL  RELIGIOI^ 

which  was  itself  salvation.  Not  a  safety  imposed 
from  without  but  one  insured  from  within,  a  condi- 
tion which  implies  present  safety.  Salvation  is  not 
insurance  against  some  outward  power  that  is  bent 
on  bringing  calamity  to  man,  it  is  that  robust  health 
of  the  heart  which  resists  and  triumphs  over  every- 
thing within  that  could  mar  the  soul.  It  is  not  a  cov- 
ering but  a  life  flow  in  the  man  himself,  a  ruddy  ro- 
bustness of  moral  health. 

It  implies  the  elimination  of  evil  from  the  heart 
and  life.  Jesus  came  to  save  people  from  their  sins. 
That  is  from  the  actual  disposition  to  sin  and  the 
presence  of  sin.  As  this  was  done  they  were  saved. 
As  sin  is  from  the  heart,  so  salvation  in  respect  to  sin 
implies  a  soundness  of  heart,  a  purity  of  soul  which 
eliminates  it.  As  there  can  be  no  condition  of  health 
in  the  physical  body,  while  poisons  are  in  the  blood, 
which  is  the  life  of  the  body,  so  there  can  be  no  con- 
ditions of  salvation  in  a  human  soul  while  moral 
poisons  flow  through  the  system.  Eliminating  is 
necessary  in  both  cases.  Salvation  signifies  this  elimi- 
nation. Man  is  saved  or  not  saved  as  sin  is  the  con- 
trolled or  controlling  factor  in  his  inmost  life,  the 
diminishing  or  increasing  power  in  his  heart.  With 
elimination  a  fact,  salvation  has  begun. 

It  also  implies  the  prevention  of  waste.  Every  in- 
dividual possesses  potential  and  actual  spiritual  and 
moral  powers  as  well  as  physical  and  social  vitalities. 
Sin  wastes  all  of  these.  It  reduces  moral  vitality,  it 
renders  ineffectual  soul  gifts,  it  destroys  heart  ener- 
gies and  it  brings  to  naught  that  which  God  had  be- 
stowed for  blessing  and  usefulness.  Salvation  signi- 
fies the  protection,  conservation,  development  and  ef- 
fectiveness of  the  powers  of  personality.     It  must 


SALVATIOK     WHAT  IS  IT?  37 

first  prevent  the  destruction  or  waste  of  those  powers. 
Those  are  normally  saved  whose  God  given  vitalities 
are  held  sacredly  in  potentiality  and  preserved  con- 
scientiously without  waste. 

IT    IS    THE    ESTABLISHMENT    OF    THE    STJPEEMACY    OF 
THE   SPIRITUAL    IN    LIFE 

We  live  in  a  world  of  matter  and  spirit.  This 
declaration  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  matter  is 
an  eternal  reality,  but  as  far  as  our  lives  are  con- 
cerned, it  is  real  to  us.  We  have  to  deal  with  it. 
There  are  human  bodies  of  real  flesh  and  blood  on 
earth,  there  are  material  needs  such  as  bread  and  but- 
ter, houses  to  live  in,  coal  to  keep  us  warm,  gold  which 
comes  in  very  handy  at  times,  and  exhilarating  pleas- 
ures which  appeal  to  physical  sense,  give  us  joy  and 
immense  satisfaction  and  send  the  blood  tingling 
through  our  veins.  We  are  not  ethereal  spirits  with- 
out sense  or  form.  We  are  very  closely  allied  to  the 
material,  regardless  of  how  some  may  seek  to  philoso- 
phize or  idealize  it  into  nonexistence.  We  are  souls 
of  spirit  in  environments  of  the  material,  dealing  with 
material  and  depending  upon  material  for  our  very 
existence  here.  It  is  true  that  the  real  self  is  spirit 
but  without  a  body  that  spirit  is  not  very  well  known 
to  those  of  us  who  stay  on  earth  and  struggle  to  live. 

There  is  no  fundamental  clash  between  spirit  and 
matter  when  the  place  of  each  is  understood  in  the 
divine  plan.  God,  who  is  a  spirit,  is  the  creator  of 
both.  There  is  nothing  sinful  in  matter  itself  and 
it  is  not  essentially  antagonistic  to  the  spirit.  Spirit 
is  manifested  in  matter  not  reluctantly  or  incongTU- 
ously  but  because  matter  is  according  to  divine  plan, 


38  PEESOISTAL  RELIGIOI^ 

excellent  material  to  be  revealed  in.  The  body  is  a 
temple  of  the  spirit.  The  functions  of  the  body  are 
divine.  All  material  things  may  be  made  expressions 
of  the  spirit.  The  human  spirit  in  a  hnman  material 
body,  is  a  divinely  correlated  personality.  What 
would  spirit  do  without  eyes?  Many  have  realized 
the  souls  that  are  in  them  and  that  are  expressed 
by  them.  Think  of  the  soul  of  a  voice !  A  material 
throat  is  a  divine  adjunct  to  help  perfect  a  divine 
function  of  the  spirit,  namely  that  voice,  through 
which  a  human  personality  expresses  itself.  Madame 
l^ordica's  soul  voice  has  gone  from  earth  with  her 
body,  so  closely  were  they  related.  The  one  was 
necessary  to  the  other.  Matter  is  no  enemy  of  spirit, 
but  rather  its  temporary  form.  Spirit  shines  through 
matter  when  properly  adjusted. 

Sin  is  the  misdirecting  of  the  material  by  the  spir- 
itual, the  abnormal  relation  of  the  spiritual  to  the  ma- 
terial, the  subjugation  of  spirit  to  matter,  the  limit- 
ing of  spirit  to  matter  and  the  willingness  and  deter- 
mination to  make  matter  the  objective  of  the  spirit. 
To  live  for  the  body,  devote  self  to  gold,  to  pander 
exclusively  to  pleasures  of  material  sense,  to  conse- 
crate one's  talents  to  the  external,  and  to  confine  one's 
spirit  to  materialistic  visions  and  goals,  this  is  sin. 
How  clearly  the  teachings  of  Jesus  reveal  this  to  be 
true.  Think  of  the  long  list  of  the  sins  of  the  body, 
the  many  sins  of  unholy  materialistic  aims,  and  the 
sins  of  devotion  to  superficial  externals  which  Jesus 
would  class  under  one  head  of  the  sin  of  material 
dominance  over  the  spiritual. 

Therefore  salvation  is  the  establishment  of  the  su- 
premacy of  the  spiritual  in  life.  It  is  the  proper 
correlation  of  matter  and  spirit.    It  is  the  mastery  of 


SALVATION.     WHAT  IS  IT?  39 

all  external  things  from  within.  It  is  spirit  con- 
trolling and  directing  matter.  It  is  spirit  making  use 
of  matter,  holding  matter  in  strict  obedience,  and  con- 
serving its  form  and  force  for  divine  objectives. 
When  the  functions  of  the  body  are  held  to  the  divine 
purpose  regarding  them,  the  powers  of  the  mind  are 
used  to  direct  material  things  toward  holy  ends,  the 
relationships  of  human  life  in  family  and  neighbor- 
hood are  considered  sacred  and  not  opportunities  for 
exploitation  and  material  gain,  and  the  soul  arises  to 
the  top  inspiring,  and  managing  the  life  in  the  inter- 
est of  true  values,  then  the  establishment  of  spiritual 
supremacy  is  real  and  salvation  is  a  fact.  This  is 
what  it  implies  to  be  saved.  It  is  impossible  to  con- 
ceive of  it  as  real  if  these  conditions  are  not  actual. 

IT   IS   HAEMONY   WITH   GOD  IN   THE   EXPERIENCE  OF   A 
NEW    CREATION 

Any  true  philosophy  of  life  makes  God  the  centre 
of  his  universe  and  also  of  humanity  which  has  that 
in  it  which  has  come  from  and  is  dependent  upon  him. 
Humanity  may  be  truly  considered  to  be  the  self 
realization  of  God.  The  spiritual  and  moral  basis  of 
humanity  is  therefore  God  himself.  The  ideal  of 
humanity  is  union  with  the  Father.  The  members  of 
the  human  family  are  to  be  one  with  their  divine  Par- 
ent. As  this  is  realized,  man  experiences  salvation. 
'No  definition  of  salvation  is  at  all  complete  without 
this  in  it.  With  this  true,  an  examination  of  the 
facts  of  mankind  will  be  in  order.  There  is  most  con- 
clusive evidence  that  man  is  largely  out  of  spiritual 
and  moral  harmony  with  God.  To  many  there  is  no 
consciousness  of  unity  with  his  nature,  his  spirit,  or 


40  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

his  ideals  and  purposes  and  no  sense  of  his  presence. 

There  are  three  classes  of  people  who  are  not  in 
union  with  God.  There  are  those  who  have  grown 
up  with  a  vivid  realization  of  their  own  individual- 
ity, the  striking  powers  of  their  own  personality,  they 
have  been  totally  ignorant  apparently  of  the  central 
self  of  the  universe  and  of  their  birth  from  him  and 
have  persisted  in  their  own  way  through  life  increas- 
ing the  consciousness  of  individuality  and  having  no 
consciousness  of  being  a  part  of  a  divine  unity.  They 
have  lived  as  separate  selves  having  no  relationship 
to  any  greater  or  more  perfect  Self  who  is  the  centre 
of  all  spirit  selves.  And  their  great  lack  has  been 
that  in  their  rather  commendable  struggle  for  self 
development,  a  struggle  ordained  of  God,  they  have 
never  realized  the  basic  unity  of  their  spiritual  na- 
ture with  the  God  who  is  over  all  and  expressed  in 
all.  They  have  lived  singularly  pure  and  true  lives, 
but  they  have  lacked  that  consciousness  of  unity  with 
God  which  would  make  real  within  them  a  spiritual 
transformation  that  would  signify  nothing  less  than 
their  salvation.  This  experience  is  verily  a  new  cre- 
ation, a  new  life  consciousness,  a  new  center.  One 
is  in  harmony  with  the  central  Being  of  the  universe, 
is  actually  identified  with  him.  Old  things  have  be- 
come new.  This,  when  truly  experienced  and  lived, 
is  salvation.  This  oneness  with  the  Father  was  the 
secret  of  Jesus'  life.  He  personified  the  salvation 
of  harmony  with  God.  It  will  give  new  center  to  the 
best  life  on  earth.  It  changes  individualism  into 
consciousness  of  the  whole,  God  and  humanity.  It 
is  basic  in  God's  plan. 

Then  there  are  others  who  have  ignorantly  strug- 
gled through  life,  not  understanding  their  own  na- 


SALVATION.     WHAT  IS  IT?  41 

tures,  appetites  or  desires,  failing  to  interpret  life 
correctly,  and  have  yielded  to  inclinations  and  temp- 
tations which  have  brought  them  to  sad  loss,  failure 
and  even  wreck.  They  have  been  unconscious  of  any 
Heavenly  Father  who  loved  them  and  have  lived  apart 
from  him  when  he  was  willing  and  glad  to  identify 
himseK  with  them.  To  these,  as  the  others,  salvation 
is  a  conscious  unity  with  the  Father,  through  Jesus 
Christ.  Spiritual  and  moral  harmony  with  him  sig- 
nifies salvation  begim.  But  there  is  in  the  lives  of 
many  people  a  devotion  to  sin  in  open  rebellion 
against  God's  truth  and  righteousness,  in  declared  de- 
fiance to  the  idealism  of  Jesus  as  an  expression  of 
God's  will  for  man,  that  signifies  a  separateness  which 
is  more  than  simply  the  unconsciousness  of  union  with 
the  Father.  We  fear  there  are  some  people  who  are 
intelligently  out  of  harmony  with  God's  spirit  and 
purposes  because  they  desire  to  be,  at  least  until  they 
can  secure  what  they  are  after.  They  seem  to  have 
no  reverence  for  him,  no  respect  for  his  wishes  and 
no  desire  to  do  his  will.  Their  lives  are  lived  pur- 
posely apart  from  him.  They  deliberately  and  per- 
sistently pursue  a  course  of  life  which  is  utterly  op- 
posed to  the  Father's  thought  for  them.  Salvation  to 
them  implies  a  conscious  surrender  to  the  Father 
in  contrition  and  sorrow  because  of  their  sinful  sep- 
arateness, and  a  relation  of  union  with  him  which  will 
be  so  vital  that  the  spirit  of  the  individual  becomes 
one  with  his,  his  scheme  of  life  will  be  harmonious 
with  the  Father's  plan  for  him  and  his  very  soul,  his 
real  inner  self  will  become  consciously  united  to  the 
soul  of  the  universe,  his  God.  This  will  be  salva- 
tion. Anything  less  is  not.  Salvation  without  union 
with  God  is  impossible  in  a  world  of  God,  in  a  family 


42  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

of  God,  and  in  a  spiritual  universe  where  spirits  are 
the  offspring  of  the  Eternal  Spirit. 

IT   IS    DEVELOPMENT   IN    CIIRISTLIKENESS   OR   ATTAIN- 
MENT   OF    CHARACTER 

The  church,  in  endeavoring  to  correct  one  error 
has  fallen  into  another,  concerning  the  relation  of 
character  to  salvation.  Paul  and  the  early  church 
were  disgusted  with  the  assumption  of  the  Phari- 
sees that  bloodless  maxims,  mechanical  ethics  and 
rules  of  conduct  were  the  content  of  religious  life. 
Thej  knew  that  Jesus  opposed  any  such  idea  and  ex- 
pounded an  ethical  experience  which  was  much  more 
than  a  mere  legal  negative  morality.  They  knew  that 
by  the  external  works  of  the  law  no  one  could  be 
saved  and  declared  so,  often.  The  church  of  later  cen- 
turies misinterpreting  Jesus'  ideal,  and,  with  the  ex- 
ample of  the  Pharisees  in  mind,  went  to  the  other 
extreme  and  denied  that  character  had  anything  to  do 
with  salvation.  It  was  trusting  the  church  as  the 
Roman  priests  taught,  or  believing  in  Jesus  and  a 
creed  as  the  Protestant  church  taught  or  one  single 
miraculous  transformation  as  Wesley  and  others 
taught.  The  church  so  emphasized  these  ideas  that 
character  came  to  be  discounted.  It  was  dangerous 
to  have  a  good  character  for  then  one  would  trust  in 
it  for  salvation.  The  Roman  church  went  so  far 
as  to  state  that  the  personal  character  of  a  priest  had 
nothing  to  do  with  his  religious  effectiveness  and  this 
is  true  today  in  South  American  Catholicism  and 
might  be  true  in  the  American  type  if  it  was  not  for 
the  fact  that  it  continually  faces  the  insistent  mod- 
ern type  of  ethical  Protestantism.    But  it  is  not  long 


SALVATION.     WHAT  IS  IT?  43 

since  Protestant  preachers  denounced  morality  from 
the  pulpit.  Perhaps  there  are  preachers  even  today 
who  would  send  a  man  straight  to  perdition  and  give 
him  no  hope  of  salvation  whatever  no  matter  how 
good  he  was,  if  he  had  not  professed  a  belief  in  a 
certain  creed  or  announced  some  miraculous  instan- 
taneous experience. 

But  there  is  a  more  sensible  idea  of  the  relation  of 
character  to  salvation  coming  to  view.  We  are  recog- 
nizing that  Jesus  gave  no  hope  of  salvation  to  any 
who  did  not  seek  to  do  the  Father's  will,  and  who  did 
not  manifest  genuine  ethical  fruits  in  every  day  life. 
He  never  once  countenanced  the  idea  that  the  gospel 
provided  for  sending  bad  men  to  heaven  because  they 
subscribed  to  a  creed  or  good  men  to  hell  because 
they  did  not  have  one.  He  expected  men  to  believe 
something  but  salvation  did  not  depend  upon  perfec- 
tion of  belief.  Salvation  to  Jesus  was  development 
into  character  with  all  that  this  implied.  We  would 
define  character  as  Christlikeness.  Jesus  never  did. 
His  modesty  forbade  it.  But  we  know  that  it  is  the 
Christian  ideal  of  character.  The  goal  of  God, 
through  Jesus  Christ,  for  all  men,  is  a  positive  good- 
ness, a  goodness  which  is  an  essential  part  of  the  per- 
son himself,  a  character  which  does  not  consist  in 
some  forced  obedience  to  ethical  rules  and  moral  regu- 
lations but  is  the  expression  of  the  real  life  of  the 
individual.  As  a  person  becomes  really  good,  he  be- 
comes Christlike  and  as  he  becomes  Christlike,  he 
possesses  character  and  as  he  possesses  character,  he 
experiences  salvation.  That  is,  salvation  is  character, 
not  by  character  but  character  itself.  Salvation  is 
that  moral  and  spiritual  condition  which  Jesus  came 
to  bring  men  to.    There  is  no  better  name  for  it  than 


44  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

character.  Man  is  saved  as  he  possesses  it.  The  only 
salvation  that  is  real  and  adequate  is  that  which 
operates  in  a  strata  of  our  life  which  is  far  deeper 
than  mere  surface  goodness.  A  restraining  moral 
idealism  is  not  enough.  The  giving  up  of  a  few  bad 
habits  is  not  an  adequate  salvation.  It  must  imply  a 
character  which  is  the  positive  expression  of  a  real 
deliverance  from  the  basic  motives  and  spirit  of  sin, 
a  character  which  is  laid  in  a  goodness  that  God  knows 
is  good;  a  spirit  and  a  purpose  which  issues  in  un- 
selfish service  for  mankind.  To  have  this  kind  of  a 
character  begun  in  us,  is  to  have  salvation  begTin. 
To  reach  the  ideal  of  character  which  Jesus  has  for 
us  is  to  be  saved. 

And  the  fact  that  this  character  is  a  development, 
needs  to  be  emphasized.  Salvation  which  is  such  a 
character  as  we  have  delineated,  does  not  spring  up  in 
a  night  and  is  not  consummated  in  a  week.  There 
are  very  radical  and  wonderful  crises  in  its  realiza- 
tion, great  crucial  events  and  experiences,  which  stand 
out  clearly,  making  that  which  was  before  seem  as 
nothing  or  worse,  but  careful  analysis  reveals  that 
these  experiences  were  after  all  expressions  of  a  move- 
ment toward  a  goal  and  at  no  one  was  the  goal  reached. 
There  are  many  conversions  and  each  one  is  a  long 
step  in  advance  toward  the  ideal  which  Jesus  has 
for  us,  but  in  no  one  is  salvation  completed.  "Justifi- 
cation," "sanctificatiou,"  "baptism  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  are  old  terms  to  express  the  fact  of  these 
steps  toward  the  character  ideal  which  has  been  set 
up  for  us.  The  term  "full  salvation"  is  a  misnomer. 
JSTo  person  has  yet  experienced  full  salvation.  Some 
experience  may  have  been  stamped  that  when  it  was 
made  known  to  him,  but  fifty  years  of  walk  with  God 


SALVATION.     WHAT  IS  IT?  45 

in  love  for  humanity,  will  make  it  plain  that  it  was 
only  a  very  partial  salvation.  Millions  confess  that 
the  elimination  of  sinful  tendencies  is  far  from  com- 
plete, that  much  of  the  animal  and  crude  remains,  and 
no  single  virtue  is  perfect,  while  some  characteristics 
of  goodness  are  lacking  entirely,  therefore  it  is  true 
that  salvation  is  a  matter  of  a  long  period  of  develop- 
ment. 

The  processes  of  God  in  bringing  man  to  salvation 
are  no  different  than  many  others  which  he  has  or- 
dained. Thoughtful  consideration  here  will  save  us 
from  many  a  pitiful  aberration.  Consultation  of  the 
records  which  stand  out  before  us  in  all  nature  about 
us,  and  in  our  own  physical,  mental  and  moral  de- 
velopment will  manifest  to  us  the  fact  that  there 
are  no  gaps  in  nature  and  no  leaps  from  nothing  to 
ideal  attainments.  We  reach  ideals  by  the  slow  proc- 
ess of  becoming.  Completeness  of  anything  takes 
time.  There  is  nothing  static.  The  whole  universe 
is  a  constant  movement  of  life,  changes  are  constantly 
occurring.  The  soul  itself  is  becoming.  All  these 
changes  and  all  this  becoming  signify  the  slow,  la- 
borious process  of  accretion.  Character  cannot  be 
manufactured  in  a  moment.  Even  God  could  not 
make  it  except  by  the  processes  he  has  ordained. 
You  cannot  make  a  fifty  year  old  Christian  in  an 
hour.  Great  salvation  processes  may  be  begun  in  a 
second  of  time,  but  no  one  of  them  gives  to  any  indi- 
vidual a  perfected  salvation  at  that  time.  That  must 
come  gradually. 

Thus  from  this,  it  is  evident  that  all  Christian  peo- 
ple are  partially  saved.  That  they  have  within  them 
the  sure  spirit  of  God,  the  true  nature  of  Christ  and 
of  their  ultimate  perfection,  no  one  may  doubt,  but 


46  PEKSONAL  KELIGION 

the  character  which  Jesus  would  have  real  within 
them  is  only  partially  wrought  out.  The  salvation 
which  is  God's  ideal  for  them  is  far  from  complete. 
Christian  people  represent  various  stages  of  salvation. 
Some  have  just  begun,  some  have  developed  to  a  much 
higher  stage,  and  some  have  progressed  remarkably 
and  reveal  a  proximity  to  Christ's  expectation  of  them 
in  this  world.  All  are  being  saved  to  that  salvation, 
that  character  which  Jesus  came  to  make  known.  In 
no  one  is  the  task  completed.  We  may  be  confident 
that  God  will  perfect  that  which  he  has  begun  in  us, 
as  we  conscientiously  surrender  ourselves  to  him, 
(Paul  was  sure  that  he  would  do  it  for  the  Philippi- 
ans.  See  Chap.  1:6)  but  as  yet,  the  best  know  it  is 
very  imperfect. 

N^or  have  we  any  reason  to  conclude  that  this  char- 
acter salvation  will  be  perfected  on  earth  or  instan- 
taneously after  death.  Jesus  said,  ''He  who  endures 
to  the  end  shall  be  saved."  The  immediate  applica- 
tion of  these  words  was  to  persons  who  would  be  in  the 
midst  of  the  troublous  tirnes  which  were  coming  upon 
Jerusalem  and  had  reference  to  their  need  amidst 
persecution  and  suffering  to  remain  firm  and  endure. 
But  the  trend  of  his  teaching  would  lead  us  to  state 
that  endurance  to  the  end  was  the  sign  of  a  character 
and  spirit  which,  while  not  perfect,  would  persist  unto 
perfection.  There  is  no  suggestion  in  Jesus'  utter- 
ances that  when  one  died  it  was  accomplished  or 
enough  was  done  at  death  to  make  its  completeness 
a  fact  immediately  afterwards.  The  process  must 
continue,  in  the  soul,  (the  personality)  after  the 
earthly  house  has  fallen.  It  was  the  soul  which  was 
being  developed  and  this  lives.  The  man  himself 
was  the  field  of  salvation  and  the  man  goes  on.     Im- 


SALVATIOK     WHAT  IS  IT?  47 

mortality  is  the  persistence  of  him.  Salvation  is  his 
perfection.  Salvation  is  his  evolution  toward  the  di- 
vine ideal.  And  this  is  not  because  of  some  arbitrary 
decree  from  God.  It  is  simply  because  in  the  nature 
of  God's  moral  universe  it  must  be  so.  It  is  a  biolog- 
ical necessity.  It  could  not  be  otherwise.  There  is  no 
possible  trick  or  magic  that  can  accomplish  it  any 
other  way.  In  the  Fathers'  plan  of  salvation  there 
is  no  way  known  to  the  divine  mind  whereby  at  the 
moment  of  death,  any  person  with  a  poorly  or  par- 
tially developed  character,  can  abruptly,  in  an  instant 
be  reconstructed  or  perfected  morally  and  spiritually 
so  that  the  processes  of  becoming  would  be  abrogated 
and  salvation  become  a  fact  without  the  human  soul 
having  truly  experienced  it.  It  must  be  a  part  of  his 
experience  and  wrought  out  within  him,  regardless  of 
the  time  it  takes  to  accomplish  it,  if  it  is  to  be  his  sal- 
vation. 

We  see  the  wisdom  of  God's  plan  in  view  of  the 
majesty  and  worth  of  an  individual  life.  It  is  be- 
cause the  soul  is  a  growing  entity.  It  has  within 
itself  great  possibilities  and  before  it  a  divine,  won- 
derful destiny.  It  may  spread  out  so  widely  and  de- 
velop so  deeply  and  climb  so  loftily,  that  time  must 
be  given  for  its  completion.  God  is  so  mindful  of 
the  intrinsic  value  of  a  human  soul  that  he  would  not 
save  it  too  quickly.  To  save  it  now  and  preserve  it 
as  it  is  would  be  a  very  poor  achievement.  An  in- 
stantaneous salvation  signifies  a  very  limited  one. 
God  could  save  all  there  was  to  save  but  that  would 
be  very  little  indeed  in  some  cases.  Salvation,  if  it 
were  to  imply  nothing  but  the  preservation  in  exact 
entity  of  that  which  is  in  existence  at  death  even, 
would  be  too  small  an  accomplishment  for  the  divine 


48  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

mind  to  conceive  of  or  the  divine  power  to  be  de- 
voted to. 

Few  people  would  like  to  think  that  the  best  that 
salvation  could  imply  would  be  the  conservation  and 
preservation  of  what  they  are  at  death,  with  noth- 
ing more  to  be  added  throughout  the  long  ages  of 
eternity.  No  larger  ideas,  no  clearer  visions,  no 
purer  motives,  no  nobler  aspirations,  and  no  truer 
righteousness  of  character.  It  would  be  almost  hell. 
Hell  is  hell  if  it  means  the  arrest  of  personality 
in  remorse  for  the  past  and  the  consciousness  of  no 
progress  in  the  future.  Some  one  asks  when  will  sal- 
vation be  consummated.  I  answer  I  do  not  know. 
Just  to  go  on,  to  progress,  to  be  larger,  grander,  no- 
bler, freer,  more  like  Jesus  every  day;  this  is  salva- 
tion for  the  individual  and  humanity  as  a  whole.  This 
is  what  Jesus  would  have  us  understand  salvation  to 
be.     Some  day  we  shall  know  much  more  about  it. 

Well  may  we  lift  our  hearts  in  thanksgiving  to  God 
for  his  grace  in  bringing  to  us  through  Jesus  the  reve- 
lation of  the  nature  and  scope  of  his  salvation  for 
man,  the  disposition  and  power  to  accomplish  it,  the 
patience  and  long  suffering  with  his  children  in 
achieving  it  and  the  constant  joy  and  inspiration 
of  his  presence  within  us  as  he  leads  us  onward,  out- 
ward, and  upward  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  heights, 
pictured  to  us  in  the  person  and  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
our  Saviour  and  Lord. 


CHAPTER    THREE 
SELF   AND    SALVATION^ 

THE  individual  has  very  largely  been  the  centre 
of  the  Christian  objective.  To  secure  the  sal- 
vation of  self  has  been  the  aim  of  Gospel  preaching. 
Evangelists,  pastors,  personal  workers,  Sunday 
School  teachers  and  the  rank  and  file  of  church  mem- 
bers have  agreed  that  the  work  of  Christians  is  to 
secure  the  salvation  of  individuals  throughout  the 
world.  Jesus  came  to  seek  and  save  the  lost  and  he 
has  commissioned  us  to  do  the  same.  In  order  to  do 
this  we  have  arrested  the  attention  of  individuals  by 
public  mass  meetings  and  by  private  conversations. 
The  message  of  these  public  aud  private  approaches 
has  been  in  the  nature  of  an  appeal  to  be  saved. 
Christians  of  one  century  have  perpetuated  the  appeal 
of  those  of  the  preceding  century  and  Christians  of 
one  locality  have  approached  the  individual  in  and 
about  the  same  way  that  Christians  of  another  locality 
have.  Up  to  the  present  time  there  has  been  a  re- 
markable similarity  in  the  nature  of  this  appeal 
among  Christian  people  the  world  over.  There  have 
been  many  differences  in  method  but  the  nature  of  the 
appeal  has  been  about  the  same. 

It  has  been  an  appeal  to  come  and  get  saved,  to 
be  made  safe,  to  become  the  recipient  of  that  which 
would  be  an  eternal  insurance  against  any  moral  or 
spiritual  calamity.  Therefore  the  appeal  has  been 
and  is,  in  many  quarters,  a  selfish  one.    It  is  a  warn- 

49 


50  PEESONAL  EELIGI0:N" 

ing  cry  to  get  in  out  of  the  storm  and  protect  your- 
self. It  is  the  call  to  come  and  get;  something  and  to 
come  for  what  you  can  get.  It  is  to  look  out  for 
number  one  and  do  it  now.  It  is  impossible  thought- 
fully to  consider  the  popular  evangelistic  appeal  to 
be  saved  without  concluding  that  it  is  essentially  a 
selfish  one. 

People  are  urged  to  listen  to  the  Gospel  message 
and  receive  Christ  in  order  that  they  may  escape  the 
eternal  penalty  of  their  sins  and  the  failure  in  this 
life  which  inevitably  follows  sinful  indulgence.  They 
are  deliberately  moved  to  be  Christians  by  revelations 
of  personal  loss  in  the  present  life,  by  picturing  the 
torments  of  the  damned  hereafter,  by  making  known 
to  them  what  they  would  gain  now  if  they  accepted 
Christ  and  by  promises  of  reward  in  the  life  to  come. 

The  appeal  of  profit  and  loss  has  been  and  is  in- 
tensified in  our  effort  to  save  the  individual.  It 
pays  and  pays  well  to  be  a  Christian  is  the  genius 
of  this  message.  The  motive  may  have  been  an  ex- 
cellent one  but  the  appeal  has  been  manifestly  selfish. 
All  one  needed  to  do  to  be  a  Christian  was  to  think 
more  deeply  and  let  the  motive  of  selfishness  control 
him  more  rationally  and  he  would,  for  what  he  could 
get  out  of  Christ  during  time  and  eternity,  become 
one  of  his  followers.  For  himself,  for  his  own  in- 
terests, for  what  life  could  signify  to  him,  the  indi- 
vidual would  logically  accept  the  proffers  of  God's 
grace  through  Jesus  Christ. 

We  would  not  insinuate  that  there  has  been  noth- 
ing more  to  the  presentation  of  Christianity  than  this, 
but  the  appeal  to  be  saved  has  been  more  or  less 
limited  as  we  have  outlined.  We  know  that  millions 
have  been  drawn  into  our  churches  under  this  appeal. 


SELF  AKD  SALVATION  51 

The  sad  fact  is  that  the  Christian  life  has  been  quite 
universally  started  under  it.  In  fear  and  trembling 
they  have  responded  to  it  and  have  testified  that  they 
have  received  what  they  desired  to  get.  But  the  ques- 
tion is  did  they  really  secure  the  salvation  which  they 
thought  they  did  ?  Is  it  not  simply  a  birth  to  a  new 
consciousness  of  what  they  had  received  or  could  se- 
cure regardless  of  any  one  else  ?  Regeneration  may 
have  begun,  but  it  was  an  abnormal  new  birth,  under 
the  pressure  of  a  selfish  motive.  They  would  be  lost 
unless  they  were  in  the  Kingdom,  they  could  not  get 
into  the  Kingdom  unless  they  were  born  again,  there- 
fore they  submitted  to  this  new  birth  that  they  might 
surely  get  in.  But  the  serious  question  is :  "Does 
such  a  birth  initiate  one  in  the  life  of  the  Kingdom"  ? 

Then  in  after  years  we  have  brought  these  people 
face  to  face  with  the  essentials  of  Jesus'  religion,  with 
his  principles  of  ethics,  namely,  love  for  others,  whole 
hearted  and  generous  giving,  sacrifice  and  suffering, 
devotion  of  talents  to  the  good  of  humanity,  and  un- 
selfish service  everywhere  and  always,  and  they  have 
been  told  that  this  is  what  it  signifies  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian. But  a  large  percentage  have  not  responded  to 
it.  Preachers  and  workers  have  sighed  and  sorrowed 
because  only  a  small  number  in  our  churches  give 
anything  to  missions,  only  a  few  manifest  any  interest 
in  the  work  of  the  church  and  large  numbers  think 
they  have  done  wonderfully  well  and  show  an  excel- 
lent Christian  spirit,  by  attending  church  once  on 
Sunday  to  receive  something  more  in  inspiration  and 
instruction. 

Many  still  come  to  get,  many  still  stay  away  be- 
cause they  cannot  get  all  they  want,  many  still  refuse 
to  have  much  of  anything  to  do  with  Christianity, 


5^  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

unless  there  is  something  in  it  for  them.  We  have 
chided  and  prodded  them,  and  wondered  why  they 
have  not  more  quickly  responded  to  the  heroic  ap- 
peals of  Christ.  But  why  should  we  wonder  if  they 
thus  do  ?  Have  we  not  as  Christian  leaders  and  teach- 
ers really  deceived  them  regarding  the  very  essence  of 
religious  faith  and  life  ?  The  trouble  lies  in  the  fact 
that  they  were  not  told,  when  approached,  what  it  ac- 
tually did  imply  to  be  a  Christian.  The  conception 
given  them  was  wrong.  We  have  known  that  the 
genius  of  Christian  ethics  is  unselfish  love  and  ser- 
vice, yet  we  have  very  largely  limited  our  appeal  to 
the  unchurched,  to  that  conception  of  Christianity 
which  makes  it  synonymous  with  selfishness.  This 
being  true,  how  could  results  be  different  ?  There  has 
been  a  great  fundamental  mistake  in  this.  We  should 
have  told  them  at  the  outset  what  it  cost.  Jesus  did. 
(See  Luke  14:25-33.)  In  coming  to  Christ  their 
selfish  natures  were  awakened.  It  was  the  response 
of  these  that  led  them  into  the  church.  They  were 
not  converted  to  the  genius  of  Jesus'  religion.  They 
were  simply  perpetuated  in  their  ovsm.  If  they  ever 
do  respond  to  the  appeals  of  a  true  Christianity,  it 
will  be  because  they  have  been  brought  into  alinement 
with  Christ  by  a  new  conversion. 

THE    CRUX    OF    THE    PROBLEM 

But  the  real  problem  is  a  far  deeper  one  than  ap- 
pears on  the  surface.  These  previous  considerations 
have  led  us  to  ask  what  place  self  has  in  salvation,  and 
what  really  constitutes  the  salvation  of  self?  These 
fundamental  questions  present  to  us  the  greater 
problem.     In  Matthew's  Gospel  record  (16:24-27) 


SELF  AKD  SALVATION  58 

we  read  the  familiar  words  of  Jesus  on  the  subject 
of  self  in  salvation.  The  entire  passage  might  be 
paraphrased  as  "Renouncement  of  self."  In  this 
statement  he  commends  self  humiliation,  self  depreci- 
ation, and  self  annihilation.  There  seems  to  be  no 
place  for  self.  It  is  something  to  be  abrogated  en- 
tirely. One  must  keep  it  out  of  the  way  if  he  is  to 
be  saved.  But  instantly  the  question  arises,  How  can 
self  be  repudiated  if  it  is  self  that  is  to  be  saved  ? 
Surely  something  in  self  must  persist.  How  can  the 
salvation  and  the  annihilation  of  self  be  secured  at 
the  same  time?  Then  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and 
the  apostles  seem  replete  with  inference  that  the 
Christian  should  always  depreciate  self  righteousness, 
self  ambition,  self  glory,  self  confidence  and  self  sat- 
isfaction. Again  the  inquiring  one  is  muddled. 
What  does  this  imply  ?  Is  it  wrong  to  have  a  right- 
eous self?  Should  no  one  have  any  confidence  in 
self  ?  Is  it  a  sin  to  have  any  real  satisfaction  in  life  ? 
Does  God  frown  upon  us  if  we  have  ambitions  to 
make  the  most  of  ourselves  ?  ISTo  thinking  person  can 
honestly  answer  these  inquiries  in  the  affirmative. 
Because  of  this  the  religion  which  Jesus  outlined 
seems  irrational  and  impractical.  We  ask  for  some 
solution  of  the  problem. 

A  definition  of  self  will  help  us  perhaps.  The  per- 
sonal pronoun  "I"  stands  for  individuality.  The  "I" 
is  the  ego  or  self.  That  self  has  come  from  God. 
There  is  something  of  God  in  every  man.  This  some- 
thing is  his  real  self.  This  is  the  true  or  the  eternal 
self.  It  has  been  known  as  Moral  Reason,  Conscience, 
Rationality,  Spirit,  the  Spiritual  Man.  This  true 
self,  in  all  great  philosophies  Heathen,  Pagan,  and 
Christian,  has  been  recognized  to  be  the  supreme  fact 


54  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

of  human  existence  and  as  such,  akin  to  the  divine. 
This  self  is  destined  to  become  a  human  personality 
in  human  environment  and  to  come  in  contact  with 
things  material,  yet  it  is  possessed  of  divine  potentiali- 
ties, which  must  be  saved  and  developed  if  salvation  is 
to  be  real.  The  saving  of  this  self  to  its  birthright 
of  experience  and  destiny  is  the  salvation  man  needs 
and  may  expect. 

This  self  starts  on  its  career  to  become  a  person- 
ality, and  in  its  struggle  upward  becomes  overde- 
veloped. Its  self  direction  becomes  accentuated.  It, 
in  its  realization  of  self,  draws  everything  it  can  to 
itself.  This  becomes  a  passion,  a  spirit.  This  spirit 
may  be  named  selfishness.  The  self  must  be  saved. 
The  spirit  must  be  subdued.  It  is  this  spirit  of  sel- 
fishness, or  overdevelopment  of  self,  that  we  recog- 
nize to  be  opposite  to  Christian  virtue.  If  self  is 
saved  this  cannot  be  present,  therefore  the  great  and 
difficult  task  of  Christianity  is  to  secure  the  salva- 
tion of  the  essential  self,  without  the  spirit  of  sel- 
fishness. To  save  self  and  not  perpetuate  the  appar- 
ently distinctive  characteristic  of  self,  is  the  problem 
which  Jesus  confronted  and  which  he  recognized  to 
be  the  divine  task  of  religion.  Thus  Jesus  com- 
mended the  spirit  of  self  depreciation  in  seeking  to 
save  man.  He  sought  not  for  the  annihilation  of  the 
essential  self,  it  was  the  spirit  of  an  overdeveloped 
self  that  must  be  repressed. 

The  true  self  is  also  very  closely  related  to  another 
self  within  us  or  a  part  of  us.  It  has  been  named  the 
empirical  self,  it  is  really  not  another  self  but  a 
phase  of  the  true  self,  or  the  outer  visible  self  within 
which  the  true  self  resides  as  a  potential  personality. 
It  is  not  the  eternal  self  but  rather  the  cosmic.     It 


SELF  AND  SALVATION  55 

is  the  self  which  has  come  from  the  primeval  along 
the  pathway  of  the  animal  and  racial,  until  it  makes 
itself  known  in  the  individual  man.  It  is  the  sum 
total  of  the  material  environments,  the  physical  ten- 
dencies, the  effects  of  deep  rooted  habits  and  in- 
stincts, and  the  inheritance  and  experiences  of  the 
past.  It  is  the  self  that  has  come  to  be,  because  the 
true  self  was  destined,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to 
make  its  journey  to  selfhood  through  things  material 
and  earthly.  It  is  therefore  the  self  of  moods,  cir- 
cumstances and  environments.  Sometimes  it  seems 
as  if  this  self  was  the  only  self,  there  is  no  other 
deeper  reality  to  our  selfliood.  As  Professor  Taggart 
writes :  "There  are  leaden  days,  when  even  the  most 
convinced  idealist  seems  to  feel  that  his  body  and 
his  furniture  are  as  real  as  himself  and  members  of 
a  far  more  powerful  reality." 

The  accretions  which  have  gathered  around  the  true 
self  have  become  so  visible  and  real  that  they  seem  to 
smother  any  self  deeper  and  more  vital.  But  these 
make  up  the  empirical  self  and  do  not  form  the  fun- 
damental genius  of  the  human  personality.  This  em- 
pirical self  is  the  one  that  Paul  had  so  much  trouble 
with  as  recorded  in  the  seventh  of  Komans,  and  the 
one  others  are  well  acquainted  with.  And  this  self  is 
the  one  that  is  to  be  repressed,  and  denied,  and  con- 
trolled. The  true  self  is  to  be  brought  forth,  made 
uppermost  and  developed.  To  make  the  essential 
self  real  and  triumphant  is  what  Jesus  came  to  lead 
man  to.    As  this  became  true  man  was  saved. 

Jesus  himself,  the  central  figure  of  the  Christ  reve- 
lation, is  the  expressed  thought  of  God  carried  to  the 
utmost  extreme  of  divine  realization  and  specializa- 
tion that  we  have  any  cognizance  of.     That  is  he  is 


56  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

the  highest  ideal  of  true  selfhood  that  the  world  has 
ever  known.  This  being  true,  we  would  naturally 
expect  to  find  the  problem  of  self  solved  in  him. 
Being  truly  divine  and  truly  human,  coming  so  surely 
from  God  and  being  so  closely  akin  to  God  and  at 
the  same  time  a  veritable  man,  we  would  look  for  a 
perfect  adjustment  of  the  true  self  and  the  empirical 
self  in  him.  And  this  is  just  what  a  critical  study 
of  his  personality  reveals  to  us.  And  in  him  we  wit- 
ness the  miracle  of  a  saved  self  without  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  selfish  spirit.  He  therefore  is  the  ideal  for 
all  humanity.  As  the  self  of  each  of  us  becomes  like 
the  self  of  Jesus,  we  shall  be  saved.  As  we  gi'ow  into 
the  stature  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  we  shall  experi- 
ence salvation. 

It  is  certainly  significant  that  the  two  ordinances  of 
the  church,  the  symbols,  which  Jesus  gave  his  follow- 
ers to  remind  them  of  the  experiences  and  the  prin- 
ciples which  were  vital  to  his  religion,  (Baptism  and 
The  Supper) ,  should  emphasize  so  strongly  the  truth 
that  Christianity  is  real  in  man  as  the  empirical  self 
is  kept  subordinate  (see  Romans  6 :  4)  and  as  the 
principles  of  unselfish  sacrifice  and  suffering  in  the 
interests  of  humanity  become  dominant  in  the  life. 
(See  Luke  22  :  19,  20)  (The  Broken  Body,  The  Shed 
Blood.) 

They  are  not  sacraments  to  save  self  without  vi- 
tally affecting  the  actual  self,  but  symbols  or  pictures 
of  what  must  occur  in  the  individual  if  self  is  to  be 
saved.  Only  as  the  empirical  self  is  put  down  and 
the  spirit  and  principles  which  were  evident  in 
Jesus'  death,  become  a  vital  part  of  the  life  of  the 
individual  person,  is  the  true  self  to  experience  its 
salvation. 


SELF  AND  SALVATION^  5Y 

THE  RATIONALE  OF  THE  BENEFICIARY  AND  SELF 
INTEREST 

With  the  conception  of  self  which  has  been  out- 
lined, in  mind,  it  behooves  us  to  inquire  if  there  is 
no  rational  place  in  salvation  for  the  religious  bene- 
ficiary and  the  person  who  has  a  passion  for  self 
interest?  Are  we  to  condemn  every  person  who  de- 
sires to  be  saved  as  one  possessed  of  a  spirit  of  sel- 
fishness ?  Are  we  to  declare  that  no  person  has  any 
Christian  right  to  come  to  God  to  receive  anything? 
Are  we  to  state  that  it  is  sinful  to  think  at  all  of  self 
preservation  ?  Is  there  no  salvation  for  the  one  who 
desires  it  ?  These  questions  naturally  arise  after  stat- 
ing that  the  appeal  to  be  saved  has  fostered  selfish- 
ness and  also  in  view  of  Jesus'  words,  "He  who  saves 
his  life  shall  lose  it,"  "I  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto  but  to  minister."  There  are  some  who  would 
lead  us  to  infer  by  their  statements  that  any  thought 
of  personal  benefit  or  self  development  in  coming  to 
Christ  and  becoming  a  Christian,  is  a  sin,  that  the 
Christ  spirit  never  inspires  one  to  think  of  himself 
at  any  time,  and  therefore  the  thought  of  securing 
something  from  God  or  any  one  in  the  interest  of  self 
is  utterly  foreign  to  the  genius  of  religion  and  ethics 
as  Jesus  taught  them.  While  we  appreciate  this  view 
point  and  recognize  what  truth  there  is  in  it,  it  does 
not  present  Jesus'  idea  of  the  matter  fairly.  If  we 
will  keep  in  mind  the  definition  of  the  true  self  and 
its  distinction  from  the  empirical  self  and  the  selfish 
overdevelopment  of  self,  we  shall  be  able  to  judge 
more  satisfactorily  concerning  this  question  of  self 
interest.  The  true  self  is  the  expression  of  God  in 
the  world  and  each  human  being  is  his  child.     It  is 


58  PEKSONAL  KELIGIOK 

certain  that  God  would  be  interested  in  his  own  self 
realization,  and  as  a  father  would  be  devoted  to  his 
child.  That  interest  and  devotion,  springing  nat- 
urally from  love,  would  lead  to  an  effort  to  bestow 
upon  that  child  the  blessings  which  his  divine  mind 
would  devise  and  his  divine  nature  be  disposed  to  con- 
fer. In  the  religious  development  of  the  human  race, 
man  has  gi-adually  come  to  realize  that  such  concep- 
tions of  God  as  father  and  benefactor  are  true.  In 
Jesus  Christ  we  have  the  revelation  of  the  eternal 
attitude  of  God  toward  his  children.  For  God  so 
loved  that  he  gave,  is  a  true  and  beautiful  picture  of 
the  Father.  Jesus  came  to  make  real  to  man  the 
Father's  desire  to  give  comfort,  strength,  freedom, 
joy  and  moral  and  spiritual  power,  to  him.  He  stated 
this  clearly  in  Luke  4:  18,  and  he  illustrated  it  every 
day  of  his  life  by  actual  ministry  to  humanity.  He 
called  the  weary  to  rest,  the  weak  to  strength,  the 
forlorn  to  cheer,  the  sick  to  health,  the  restless  to  peace 
and  the  discouraged  to  hope.  He  freely  gave  his  life 
power  to  succor  a  diseased,  broken  hearted,  starved, 
needy  and  sinful  humanity.  Jesus  actually  came  to 
bestow  upon  mankind  the  priceless  gifts  of  a  loving 
God.  He  inspired  men  to  ask  that  they  might  receive 
and  he  never  turned  away  one  who  really  desired 
his  great  gifts.  Jesus  also  knew  that  the  salvation 
of  man  depended  upon  his  becoming  a  beneficiary  of 
God's  grace  and  love.  The  religious  development  of 
the  individual  child  of  God  and  the  entire  family  of 
God  is  contingent  upon  becoming  recipients  of  the 
spiritual  riches  of  the  Father.  All  we  are  we  have 
received  from  him,  all  we  expect  to  be  is  to  come 
from  him. 

With  this  true,  could  it  be  entirely  wrong  to  desire 


SELF  AND  SALVATION"  59 

what  the  Father  has  for  us  ?  To  want  cheer  when  the 
heart  is  lonely,  light  when  the  soul  is  in  the  dark, 
strength  when  power  is  waning,  calmness  when  the 
heart  flutters,  faith  when  confidence  seems  shaken, 
and  forgiveness  when  conscious  of  sin,  cannot  be  dis- 
pleasing to  God.  It  is  the  normal  expression  of  the 
child  who  is  cognizant  of  his  great  need  in  a  world 
where  his  Father  has  placed  him.  It  reveals  the  true 
instinct  of  a  true  child.  It  is  just  as  normal  as  the 
turning  of  the  babe  to  the  mother's  breast  for  food,  or 
the  cry  of  the  child  in  danger  for  protection,  or  the 
appeal  to  the  parents  for  help  in  solving  problems 
and  achieving  success.  This  call  of  the  child  for 
Him  and  his  gifts  is  just  what  the  Father  delights  to 
hear.  How  we  parents  love  to  feel  that  the  child  is 
conscious  of  us,  realizes  his  relation  to  us,  knows 
something  of  our  resources  and  craves  our  help  daily. 
Such  desires  spring  logically  from  a  normal  relation- 
ship between  parent  and  child  and  there  are  desires 
to  receive,  to  become  beneficiaries  of  the  Heavenly 
Father's  love  and  grace  which  are  just  as  logical  and 
right  as  these.  We  are  not  to  think  that  every  call  to 
God  to  help  us  is  necessarily  selfish  nor  are  we  to 
believe  that  the  receiving  of  his  benefactions  is  in- 
congruous with  the  essence  of  religion.  These  are 
instinctive  in  an  ideal  spiritual  relationship  to  God. 
It  is  the  proper  adjustment  of  the  true  self  to  the 
great  Self  of  the  universe.  It  reveals  our  kinship 
with  him  and  our  dependence  upon  him.  The  out- 
flow of  God  to  his  children  is  divine  and  the  intake 
by  humanity  is  a  part  of  his  plan.  It  is  as  necessary 
to  the  Father  as  it  is  to  the  children.  It  is  essential 
in  a  family  experience. 

An  intelligent  self  interest  is  also  to  be  commended. 


60  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

It  is  not  selfish  to  desire  passionately  the  preserva- 
tion or  the  salvation  of  the  true  self.  The  desire  to 
cater  to  the  empirical  Self,  is  another  matter.  If 
we  have  a  passion  to  perpetuate  and  develop  the  ac- 
cumulative self  which  has  come  from  the  racial  and 
animal  and  is  cosmic  in  its  scope,  then  self  interest 
is  to  be  condemned.  But  the  desire  to  have  the  true 
self  saved,  that  is,  protected  from  moral  and  spir- 
itual ruin,  kept  from  danger  if  you  please,  and  made 
all  that  can  be  under  a  Heavenly  Father's  blessing,  is 
a  commendable  self  interest.  It  is  not  necessarily  sel- 
fish to  desire  power  over  moral  waste  in  life  and  to 
overcome  evil  within,  that  the  soul  self  may  become 
all  that  the  Father  has  planned. 

Emphasis  upon  the  true  self  here  is  the  important 
thought.  We  are  certainly  not  asked  to  be  indifferent 
to  our  essential  well  being  in  God's  plan.  Jesus 
sought  continually  to  awaken  men  to  a  passion  for 
the  true  values  of  life  in  view  of  genuine  self  preser- 
vation. He  wanted  every  one  to  think  seriously  of 
the  effect  of  sin  and  devotion  to  the  external  upon  the 
real  self.  The  passages  in  Luke  9 :  25  make  this 
very  plain.  These  words  are  eschatological  in  their 
original  use.  The  picture  is  one  of  the  final  judg- 
ment of  a  man,  who,  by  disregarding  his  real  interests 
and  by  unfaithfulness  to  his  true  self,  has  become 
wealthy,  powerful  in  worldly  influence  and  appar- 
ently possessed  of  all  that  self  needed.  But  in  reality 
he  has  perpetuated  the  empirical  or  sensual  self  and 
has  neglected  his  true  self.  There  he  stands  in  the 
judgment  in  a  sorry  plight.  He  has  all  the  accumu- 
lations of  the  empirical  self  and  yet  he  cannot  enjoy 
them.  These  shall  not  last.  It  is  only  the  true  self 
that  persists.     He  has  no  soul   self.     He  did  not 


SELF  AND  SALVATION  61 

awaken  to  true  values  and  now  he  is  stripped  of 
everything.  If  he  had  possessed  intelligent  self  in- 
terest, said  JesiTS,  if  he  had  been  really  wise,  he 
would  have  sought  earnestly  to  develop  his  true  soul 
self.  The  Master  here  was  teaching  the  lesson  that 
true  self  interest  is  not  to  be  neglected  but  rather 
stimulated.  While  not  inspiring  mankind  to  think 
of  life  simply  in  terms  of  '^'profit  and  loss"  to  them- 
selves, and  never  idealizing  a  strictly  commercial  con- 
ception of  religion  and  ethics,  yet  he  did  make  the 
desire  and  purpose  to  have  one's  true  self  saved  as 
the  Father  revealed  it  should  be,  a  legitimate  passion 
to  possess.  The  conscious  relation  to  the  Father  and 
his  purpose,  in  this  passion  to  have  himself  pro- 
tected and  developed,  saves  self  interest  from  the  very 
element  which  Jesus  could  not  sanction,  namely,  sel- 
fishness. We  should  remember  that  selfishness  is 
the  passion  for  overdevelopment  of  self,  and  that  nor- 
mal self  interest  is  necessary  to  individual  growth. 
Self  interest  is  the  evidence  of  the  soul's  struggle 
upward.  A  normal  self  interest  consciously  absorbed 
in  the  Father's  purpose,  is  what  the  Master  came  to 
secure.  The  Prodigal  son,  aroused  to  self  interest 
which  issued  in  a  return  to  his  Father's  love  and 
will  for  him,  presents  the  legitimate  interest  which 
everyone  should  have  in  himself,  an  interest  never 
separated  from  the  Father,  but  a  self  interest  nev- 
ertheless. Without  defending  Nietzsche's  philosophy 
of  altruism  and  selfishness  in  entirety,  we  yet  believe 
he  had  much  truth  on  his  side,  and  there  is  danger 
of  producing  deficiency  of  personality  by  an  empha- 
sis of  altruism  which  leads  one  to  think  that  all  self 
development  is  sin.  Surely  we  do  not  desire  to  ad- 
vocate an  unselfishness  which  produces  selflessness. 


62  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

THE  SAVING  OF  THE  TKUE  SELF  IS  NOT  TO  BE  CON- 
SIDERED APART  FROM  ALL  SELVES 

No  self  is  saved  alone.  The  desire  to  be  saved 
regardless  of  others,  is  a  proof  that  the  true  salva- 
tion of  self  has  not  been  appreciated.  The  assump- 
tion of  salvation  in  private  with  no  sense  of  others 
is  a  Christian  absurdity.  Matthew  Arnold  nobly 
testified  of  his  father  as  follows : — 

But  thou  wouldst  not  alone 
Be  saved,  my  father,  alone 
Conquer  and  come  to  thy  goal. 
Leaving  the  rest  in  the  wild. 

We  are  happy  that  he  did  not  think  of  being  saved 
alone  for  we  know  he  could  not  be.  He  had  no 
privilege  to  be  saved  without  interest  in  others.  And 
this  is  not  because  of  some  arbitrary  decree  that  God 
will  not  save  any  except  as  they  endeavor  to  secure 
the  salvation  of  others.  It  is  simply  an  impossibility 
in  view  of  the  nature  of  salvation  itself,  the  one- 
ness of  God  with  all  humanity  and  the  solidarity  of 
the  human  race.  Realizing  that  our  Heavenly  Father 
is  the  supreme  self  conscious,  self  determining  per- 
sonality, having  his  life  in  and  through  a  world  order 
and  a  kingdom  of  selves,  who  are  his  own  self  reali- 
zation, a  social  unity,  he  being  the  father  of  all 
human  spirits,  how  could  it  be  possible  for  one  to 
be  in  harmony  with  God  and  have  within  him  the 
saving  essence  of  the  Father's  nature,  if  he  had  no 
love  for  these  other  selves,  and  was  not  consciously 
one  with  them  'I  His  salvation  is  more  than  inti- 
mately connected  with  theirs,  it  is  an  actual  part  of 
theirs  and  is  consummated  in  theirs.  No  self  is  an 
end  in  itself.    The  moment  one  tries  to  make  himself 


SELF  AND  SALVATION  63 

the  whole,  or  to  claim  himself  for  himself,  that  is 
to  make  his  true  self  his  and  his  only,  then  that  self 
is  not  himself.  The  true  self  is  universal.  It  is 
only  itself  when  it  is  tinily  related  to  God  and  all 
other  selves.  So  that  no  person  can  have  that  self 
saved  without  others  being  included  in  its  perspec- 
tive and  passion. 

In  this  utterance  of  Jesus,  namely  that  "he  who 
saves  his  life  shall  lose  it  and  he  who  loses  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it,"  he  states  the  well  known 
truth  that  self  realization  or  self  salvation  must  be 
found  in  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
among  men.  That  is,  it  is  a  social  experience.  He 
was  talking  to  his  disciples  about  his  Kingdom,  a 
Kingdom  made  up  of  persons.  He  had  no  thought  of 
seeking  to  save  any  one  apart  from  that  Kingdom. 
He  had  no  idea  that  any  one  could  be  fully  saved 
apart  from  it.  He  told  all  his  disciples  to  seek  first 
that  Kingdom  and  that  righteousness  which  was  fun- 
damental to  it.  They  were  to  have  as  large  an  ob- 
jective as — Kingdom  righteousness,  that  is  the  right- 
eousness of  the  whole.  And  in  presenting  this  ideal 
of  the  Kingdom,  he  emphasized  the  fact  that  true 
self  salvation  could  not  be  an  isolated,  unsocial  self 
realization.  It  is  only  in  the  society  of  the  kingdom 
that  one  can  find  himself.  As  he  lost  himself  in  the 
realization  of  that  social  ideal  for  which  Jesus  came, 
he  would  come  to  the  experience  of  his  true  self. 
Thus  man  comes  to  his  own  higher  good  as  he  seeks 
the  good  of  others.  This  does  not  imply  that  he  has 
no  interest  in  himself.  He  is  one  of  the  others  who 
make  up  the  kingdom  and  he  has  his  own  value.  He 
may  have  respect  for  his  life  as  one  of  many  but  only 
one.     There  is  a  self  interest  which  places  a  man 


64  PEESONAL  EELIGION 

before  all  others.  He  makes  himself  primary.  This 
cannot  be  if  he  is  to  be  saved.  He  is  but  one  of 
many  and  he  is  to  love  others  as  himself.  As  he 
loves  others  and  works  for  others,  he  comes  to  his 
true  self.  The  true  self,  if  left  to  follow  its  inclina- 
tions, will  move  toward  others,  for  it  belongs  to  the 
larger  himianity  and  as  it  moves  out  toward  others  it 
comes  to  its  own  self  realization.  Free  the  true  self 
of  the  empirical  or  sense  self,  said  Jesus,  and  it  will 
find  its  own  salvation  among  the  many  whom  it  needs 
to  complete  itself. 

What  is  the  picture  of  a  saved  man  ?  Is  it  one 
who  is  riding  in  an  ark  while  the  world  of  mankind 
is  being  drowned  ?  Is  it  Lot  fleeing  from  Sodom  ? 
We  have  about  concluded  that  such  as  these  are  lost 
men.  The  man  who  is  thinking  only  of  him- 
self and  seeking  to  escape  the  woes  of  the  world 
is  far  from  salvation.  The  saved  man  is  the  one 
who  moves  out  into  society  and  seeks  with  others 
to  realize  the  salvation  of  all.  This  is  the  true  self 
coming  to  its  own,  in  touch  with  all  and  one  for  all. 
It  is  by  identification  with  human  beings  as  mem- 
bers of  the  great  family  of  God  that  the  self  comes 
to  its  realization.  The  method  of  the  monk,  the  re- 
cluse and  the  ascetic  is  just  the  reverse  of  what  it 
should  be.  The  idea  that  one  can  secure  even  his  own 
salvation  by  staying  away  from  others,  by  having  no 
part  in  the  experience  of  a  common  humanity,  is 
utterly  untrue  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  soul 
progress  and  in  opposition  to  the  plain  teachings  of 
Jesus.  There  will  be  something  lacking  in  the  self- 
realization  of  the  Christian  individual  whose  heart 
does  not  throb  for  the  humanity  of  the  world.  The 
man  who  does  not  love  all  classes,  including  the  hea- 


SELF  AND  SALVATIOT^  65 

then,  and  labor  for  them,  will  find  himself  far  from 
complete,  some  day.  He  ought  to  know  his  salvation 
is  partial  today.  He  has  sought  to  save  himself  not- 
withstanding others,  and  in  that  has  lost  the  salva- 
tion of  himself.  He  is  not  progressing  toward  salva- 
tion but  rather  toward  subtraction  and  division  of 
humanity  which  is  the  loss  of  self. 

THE   SALVATION    OF   SELF    IS   REALIZED   THKOUGH    THE 
APPLICATION    OF   THE   LAW   OF   SACRIFICE 

It  is  true  that  Jesus  called  men  to  take  up  the 
cross  and  follow  him  because  there  was  no  way  for 
his  kingdom  to  come  without  doing  that.  The  life  he 
outlined  for  his  disciples  was  one  of  hardship  and 
would  necessarily  involve  sacrifice.  They  must  give 
up  their  lives  for  the  world  in  order  that  the  Father's 
eternal  purposes  might  be  fulfilled.  The  truth  of 
sacrifice  being  necessary  in  the  interest  of  life  de- 
velopment is  everywhere  evident.  The  student  of 
botany  finds  that  one  portion  of  a  flower  is  sacrificed 
for  the  welfare  of  the  whole  flower  and  that  certain 
leaves  perish  in  order  that  the  plant  may  put  on  the 
full  glory  of  the  summer.  The  devotee  of  entomology 
ascertains  that  the  same  principle  is  operative  in  in- 
sect life.  The  activity  of  the  bee  is  seldom  for  its 
own  pleasure;  almost  all  of  its  gifts,  habits  and  in- 
dustry are  designed  for  the  benefit  of  the  species. 
The  knowledge  of  natural  history  reveals  that  there 
is  a  law  governing  the  development  of  animals  and 
plants  so  that  whenever  large  numbers  of  them  are 
congregated  together,  some  are  modified  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  others.  Thus  science  makes  plain  to  us 
the  fact  that  the  law  of  sacrifice  is  operating  through- 


66  PERSON^AL  RELIGION 

out  the  entire  structure  and  development  of  the  earth 
and  its  life.  We  recognize  that  Jesus  was  calling 
his  disciples  to  obey  the  law  that  is  universal  in  the 
world  development.  Today  we  appreciate  its  sig- 
nificance more  than  ever.  Sir  Fitzjames  Stephen 
once  wrote,  "The  Christian  admiration  for  self  sac- 
rifice will  disappear  and  it  will  turn  out  that  the 
respectable  man  of  the  world  was  after  all  in  the 
right."  But  where  in  the  civilized  world  today  is  the 
man,  who  lives  for  self,  admired  ?  Does  any  one 
hold  him  up  as  an  ideal  ?  Do  his  portraits  fill  our 
galleries  and  is  his  name  revered  by  the  people  ?  Hu- 
manity's love  and  admiration  for  the  unselfish  man 
reveals  the  universality  of  this  law  of  sacrifice  in 
human  life  and  also  the  response  of  human  nature  to 
its  divinity  and  nobility. 

But  the  corollary  of  this  truth  is  equally  evident. 
It  is  just  as  true  that  self  comes  to  its  own  salvation 
by  sacrifice  as  that  self  must  be  sacrificed  for  the  sal- 
vation of  others.  As  the  disciples  of  Jesus  gave  them- 
selves to  the  furthering  of  the  Father's  eternal  pur- 
poses regarding  his  Kingdom,  they  furthered  the 
process  of  self  realization  in  themselves.  The  motive 
of  sacrifice  was  the  welfare  of  others.  No  thought 
was  there  to  be  of  their  own  benefit.  Jesus  was 
thinking  of  his  great  kingdom  plan  when  he  called 
them  to  the  life  of  hardship  and  sacrifice.  But  he 
took  care  to  tell  them  that  the  result  would  be  the 
finding  of  their  own  selves.  They  were  asked  to  give 
up  all  thought  of  satisfying  the  empirical  self,  to 
lose  their  very  lives,  to  go  even  to  death  if  need  be, 
but  in  doing  this  they  would  experience  the  salva- 
tion of  their  true  selves.  The  case  of  the  rich  young 
ruler  would  be  to  the  point  here.     He  was  anxious 


SELF  AND  SALVATION  67 

to  know  what  he  must  do  to  be  saved  or  as  he  phrased 
it  "to  have  eternal  life."  Jesus  told  him  plainly 
to  sell  all  his  possessions  and  give  to  the  poor.  Here 
was  an  exaction  which  was  not  arbitrarily  imposed. 
The  giving  of  his  goods  to  the  poor  would  not  have 
saved  him,  if  there  had  not  been  some  fundamental 
law  of  soul  life  in  operation  which  demanded  that 
to  be  done  in  order  to  accomplish  what  he  requested. 
It  was  only  because  it  was  impossible  for  the  life  de- 
voted to  self  to  be  saved  while  it  was  conformed  to 
that  principle  of  living.  It  must  subordinate  the  em- 
pirical self  with  its  grasp  of  material  things  to  the 
true  soul  self  and  yield  to  the  law  of  sacrifice  before 
the  true  self  could  ever  come  to  itself.  In  the  science 
of  soul  culture,  or  the  true  self  culture,  it  is  a  fact 
that  every  act  of  the  true  self  in  subordinating  the 
empirical  self  to  itself  reacts  to  the  development  of 
itself  for  the  good  of  others.  Instead  of  decreasing 
it  or  dividing  it  only  increases  and  unifies  it.  There 
are  mysteries  regarding  it,  we  cannot  understand  the 
spiritual  alchemy  of  it,  but  as  we  know  that  it  is 
impossible  to  find  the  "Blue  Bird"  by  seeking  it, 
and  that  happiness  comes  to  us  as  we  forget  our  own 
desire  for  it  and  make  others  happy,  so  it  is  im- 
possible to  secure  our  own  salvation  by  seeking  for 
it,  and  salvation  comes  as  we  give  ourselves  to  save 
others.  We  may  be  very  sure  that  God  has  so  or- 
dered the  moral  world  that  the  development  of  hu- 
man personality  into  the  likeness  of  Christ,  or  the 
salvation  of  the  true  self,  and  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  among  men  depend  upon  conform- 
ity to  love,  righteousness  and  sacrifice.  And  he  who 
seeks  righteousness  everywhere  and  daily  sacrifices 
in  the  interest  of  humanity,  will  find,  as  time  con- 


68  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

tinues  and  eternity  begins,  that  devotion  to  the  good 
of  all  and  the  purposes  of  God  in  Christ,  will  work 
out  within  him  that  salvation  which  Jesus  came  to 
secure  in  man,  and  the  less  he  thinks  about  himself 
the  better.  It  is  true  that  salvation  eludes  one  just 
in  proportion  as  he  passionately  seeks  it  for  himself. 
It  is  undeniably  true  that  the  nature  of  the  true 
self  is  such  that  the  appeal  to  save  self  and  that  pri- 
marily, only  stupefies  it.  It  cannot  be  true  to  itself 
and  respond  to  it.  The  empirical  self  leaps  to  such 
an  appeal.  Its  nature  is  alive  to  everything  which 
can  bring  more  to  itself.  All  its  faculties  and  pow- 
ers are  alert  to  grasp  something  more.  It  is  ever- 
lastingly out  to  get.  But  the  only  appeal  which 
really  awakens  the  true  self,  is  the  appeal  of  God- 
likeness  or  the  appeal  of  the  Christ  to  forget  self 
and  serve,  to  be  up  and  doing  for  others,  to  go  to 
the  limits  of  self  sacrifice  in  the  interests  of  Christ's 
kingdom  among  men.  The  appeal  that  the  empirical 
self  is  dead  to,  the  true  self  is  all  alive  to.  Its  nature 
makes  this  difference.  It  is  the  difference  between 
the  spiritual  nature  of  the  universe,  God,  and  the 
material,  animal  and  racial  powers  which  have  be- 
come so  potent  a  part  of  the  human  personality.  The 
true  self  responds  to  the  unselfish  appeal  because  it 
is  its  nature  thus  to  do.  The  universal  response  to 
sacrificing,  to  the  heroic  and  the  common  good  by 
individuals  in  all  classes,  proves  that  there  is  a  true 
self  in  humanity  and  God  is  not  dead.  Without  this 
awakening  of  the  true  self  it  could  never  experience 
salvation.  Without  this  disposition  to  respond  to  the 
unselfish  there  would  be  no  hope  for  humanity.  The 
moral  order  of  true  selfhood  is  basicly  inclined  to- 
ward its  own  salvation  by  its  native  response  to  the 


SELF  AND  SALVATION  69 

unselfish.  Therefore  there  is  salvation  in  being  true 
to  one's  true  self. 

Some  fifteen  years  ago  it  was  my  privilege  to  hear 
Dr.  John  Watson,  ^'lan  MacLaren,"  read  from  his 
own  book  ''The  Bonnie  Brier  Bush."  He  told  of  a 
criticism  of  one  of  the  characters  of  that  book  by 
some  good  people.  He  had  made  real  the  sacrifice 
and  love  of  one  who  leaped  into  a  river  to  save  a 
young  man  and  has  left  the  inference  that  there 
was  something  in  that  act  which  led  on  to  salvation. 
When  asked  if  he  thought  one  would  be  saved  be- 
cause of  that  act,  he  answered  that  he  was  sure  that 
he  would  far  quicker  than  he  would  if  he  had  not 
leaped  into  the  river  to  save.  The  fact  was  that  the 
person  who  did  this  act  of  kindness  had  responded 
to  the  spirit  and  principles  which  are  essential  in  a 
saved  life.  This  was  but  one  expression  of  that  re- 
sponse. As  this  response  became  what  Christ  would 
have  it,  that  person  was  coming  to  his  salvation.  The 
true  self  was  becoming  dominant  and  thus  the  true 
self  was  being  saved. 

Jesus  knew  what  he  was  doing  when  he  appealed 
to  men  from  the  standpoint  of  unselfishness  to  follow 
him.  He  was  perfectly  sure  that  only  as  humanity 
responded  to  that  appeal  could  it  be  saved.  That 
there  was  no  real  culture  of  the  personality  in 
thoughts  and  acts  which  had  self  salvation  exclu- 
sively in  mind.  With  clear  statement,  apt  illustra- 
tion, and  personal  example  he  emphasized  this  fun- 
damental truth  in  soul  science.  In  the  interest  of  all 
humanity  and  each  individual,  he  asked  men  to  for- 
sake all,  to  give  to  feed  the  poor,  to  take  up  the  cross, 
to  deny  self,  and  to  lose  the  life.  He  knew  that  the 
culture,  or  salvation  of  self,  could  only  be  realized 


70  PEKSON^AL  KELIGION 

by  adopting  those  principles  which  save.  A  saved 
self  is  a  true  self,  denying  the  dominance  of  the  em- 
pirical self  and  yielding  to  the  principles  of  unsel- 
fishness by  which  its  life  is  made  spiritually  strong 
and  perpetuated. 

One  of  the  most  powerful  illustrations  of  the  con- 
flict between  the  true  self  of  a  man,  the  self  that  feels 
its  divinity  and  aspires  to  the  Christlike,  and  the 
empirical  self,  the  self  that  passionately  strives  to 
gain  the  whole  world  for  itself,  has  been  given  to  us 
recently  by  Mr.  Basil  King  in  his  most  remark- 
able story  of  American  life  entitled  "The  Way 
Home."  It  is  worth  studying  from  this  view  point. 
Half  the  battle  is  fought  if  one  understands  the  na- 
ture of  his  true  self  and  his  self  of  accretion,  and 
also  the  principles  which  should  govern  the  relation 
of  the  two.  Recognizing  his  real  self,  and  standing 
with  his  Heavenly  Father  in  the  strength  and  dignity 
of  that  selfhood,  he,  from  within  and  above,  watches 
that  empirical  self  and  forestalls  its  avaricious  prog- 
ress, by  becoming  one  with  Christ  and  humanity  and 
devoting  himself  to  the  good  of  all.  We  perceive 
from  this  view  point,  the  rationality  of  Jesus'  state- 
ments about  self  interest  and  self  denial,  realizing 
what  self  the  interest  is  to  be  centred  in  and  what 
self  is  to  be  denied. 

And  we  should  be  conscious  of  this  today.  The 
Christian  preacher  and  worker  will  work  with  Christ 
and  for  the  salvation  of  man  as  he  makes  it  the  basis 
of  his  appeal  and  service.  Jesus  never  deceived 
humanity.  We  must  not.  The  entire  Kingdom  work 
of  the  Master  depends  upon  intelligent  instruction 
and  example  in  the  constructive  principles  of  Chris- 
tian salvation.    Every  religious  leader  who  speaks  in 


SELF  AND  SALVATION  Yl 

the  name  of  the  Master,  every  worker  everywhere, 
is  in  duty  bound  to  deal  with  mankind  so  that  men 
will  be  truly  saved,  so  that  society  will  experience 
salvation,  so  that  Christ's  ideal  will  be  reached. 
Never  was  the  world  in  need  of  this  unselfish  ideal- 
ism and  spirit  more  than  at  the  present. 

A  cynic  once  gave  the  following  definition  of  a 
Christian :  "A  Christian  man  is  a  man  whose  great 
aim  in  life  is  a  selfish  desire  to  save  his  own  soul, 
who  in  order  to  do  that  goes  regularly  to  church,  and 
whose  supreme  hope  is  to  go  to  heaven  when  he  dies." 
We  fear  that  this  definition  has  been  too  often  true. 
It  is  our  business  to  forestall  the  possibility  of  its 
repetition.  The  coming  generation  should  have  bet- 
ter ideals  and  illustrations  of  the  saved  self.  If  a  so 
called  Christian  civilization  had  not  been  so  per- 
meated with  the  spirit  of  national  selfishness,  the 
European  horror  would  not  have  been  a  fact.  God 
forbid  that  we  should  train  people  to  think  that 
Christianity  is  synonymous  with  the  development  of 
a  national  as  well  as  an  individual  empirical  self- 
hood. God  hasten  the  day  when  the  true  selfhood 
of  nations  shall  be  secured  and  maintained,  for  how 
can  the  kingdom  come  unless  this  be  a  fact  ? 


CHAPTER   FOUR 
THE    PEEPOSITIONS    OF    SALVATION 

TRUTH  is  conceived  and  developed  in  the  mind. 
It  sometimes  comes  like  a  flash  to  the  soul.  We 
know  it  before  we  can  tell  it.  It  is  also  empirical  and 
the  experience  of  it  struggles  for  expression.  Our 
Heavenly  Father  has  made  it  possible  for  man  to 
make  known  his  thoughts  and  experiences.  Lan- 
guage is  the  vehicle  of  the  mind  and  heart.  Vocabu- 
laries are  demanded  to  carry  thought  and  feeling  out 
into  the  world  and  picture  the  sights  of  the  soul. 
Languages  did  not  drop  from  Heaven  ready  made, 
they  came  into  being  because  man  had  something  to 
tell.  Words  are  but  windows  through  which  the  light 
of  the  inner  being  shines  that  others  may  see.  What 
would  we  do  without  the  ability  to  state  and  describe 
what  we  think  and  experience?  How  could  we  see 
anything  together  if  language  was  not  possible  ?  How 
could  thought  make  any  contribution  to  humanity's 
progress  if  man  had  not  been  able  to  write  nouns, 
verbs,  adjectives  and  adverbs  ?  Word  painting  is  as 
much  an  art  as  coloring  in  oil.  He  who  knows  how 
to  use  a  language  to  express  the  great  thoughts  of  his 
mind  and  to  portray  the  divine  experiences  of  his 
soul,  is  as  traly  a  master  as  a  Raphael  or  Rubens. 
Religious  history  has  come  down  to  us  in  written  lan- 
gTiages.  There  have  been  many.  The  record  of  the 
religious  development  of  the  Jewish  nation  is  before 
us  in  the  most  precious  Book  in  the  world.     Two 

72 


THE  PREPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION      73 

great  languages  were  used  to  make  it  known  to  us,  the 
Hebrew  and  the  Greek.  In  fact  it  has  come  to  us 
in  one  language,  namely  the  Greek.  Students  well 
know  the  value  of  this  to  early  Christianity  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  lang-uage  of  the  Roman  empire 
at  that  time  was  almost  entirely  Greek.  Scholars 
testify  that  of  all  earth  languages  there  is  no  one 
so  rich,  so  beautiful  and  so  capable  of  expressing  the 
shades  and  varieties  of  thought,  as  the  Greek.  That 
the  Bible  should  be  preserved,  that  the  great  truths 
therein  contained  should  be  expressed  and  that  all 
thie  treasures  of  its  spiritual  wealth  should  be  handed 
on  to  humanity,  in  this  remarkable  language,  is  more 
to  us  than  a  coincidence.  It  is  worthy  of  recogTiition 
as  a  distinct  and  wonderful  providence  of  the  true 
God.  We  should  be  everlastingly  grateful  to  him  be- 
cause of  it. 

It  is  also  a  fact  that  the  greatness  of  profound 
truths  is  oftentimes  made  real  in  the  little  words  of 
a  language.  A  long  word  will  have  attached  to  it  a 
short  one  and  this  tiny  attachment  is  what  makes 
the  larger  word  stand  out  before  us  in  all  the  majesty 
of  its  worth  and  meaning.  In  fact  we  would  have 
difficulty  at  times  to  ascertain  the  significance  of  the 
great  word  were  it  not  for  the  small  one.  It  is  the 
preposition,  or  that  particle  of  speech  which  comes 
just  before  or  just  after  the  noun  or  the  verb  that 
gives  to  us  the  value  of  the  thing  expressed.  So  im- 
portant are  these  prepositions  that  laws  of  nations  are 
interpreted  in  the  light  of  them,  courts  proceed  to 
judge  in  view  of  them,  and  systems  of  theology  are 
made  out  of  them.  It  is  particularly  true  that  they 
are  illuminating  interpreters  of  religious  truth.  Of- 
tentimes not  only  side  lights  are  thrown  upon  great 


T4  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

fundamental  essentials  in  religion  but  the  whole  light 
of  what  God  has  taught  humanity  through  experience 
shines  out  in  them  and  is  actually  focused  upon  the 
human  mind  and  heart  through  them.  And  in  no 
language  does  the  power  of  a  preposition  to  manifest 
truth  reveal  itself  more,  if  as  much,  as  in  the  Greek. 
Recently  I  took  occasion  to  examine  in  my  own  inade- 
quate way,  the  significance  of  some  of  these  prepo- 
sitions contained  in  one  single  passage  of  Paul's  writ- 
ings and  I  was  perfectly  amazed  to  note  what  it  was 
my  privilege  to  discover.  I  found  that  the  genius 
and  range  of  salvation  were  wonderfully  laid  open  to 
all  who  would  take  time  to  study  them.  The  passage 
to  which  I  refer  is  found  in  the  letter  to  the  Colos- 
sians  the  first  chapter  and  the  thirteenth  verse.  "Who 
has  delivered  us  out  of  the  power  of  darkness  and 
transferred  us  into  the  Kingdom  of  His  beloved  son 
— in  whom  we  have  the  redemption — the  release  from 
sins"  (Translation  by  Ferrar  Fenton.)  In  these 
masterful  lines  from  Paul's  pen  we  have  a  conception 
of  salvation,  intensified  by  prepositions,  which  will 
live  as  long  as  the  world  stands.  These  little  words 
do  not  represent  some  passing  idea  of  Christian  sal- 
vation which  only  has  to  do  with  temporary  condi- 
tions and  forms.  Perusal  of  them  impresses  one  with 
their  permanent  significance.  They  stand  for  the 
great  essentials  which  the  modern  religious  world 
recognizes  to  be  so  important.  If  this  were  not  true, 
we  would  not  be  emphasizing  them  today.  Paul,  to 
be  sure,  was  writing  them  to  the  small  band  of  dis- 
ciples at  Colossae,  (a  church  which  he  did  not  estab- 
lish. Epaphras  having  that  privilege  while  the 
apostle  was  busy  at  Ephesus,)  and  they  were  written 
primarily  with  the  Pagan  world  in  which  this  church 


THE  PEEPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATIOK      75 

was  situated,  in  mind,  although  they  implied  much 
to  Paul  himself  as  he  thought  of  his  experience  as 
a  zealous  devotee  of  Judaism,  yet  both  of  these  con- 
siderations do  not  make  the  application  of  the  truth 
expressed  at  all  irrelevant  to  us  today.  While  our 
civilization  is  far  in  advance  of  the  Pagan  and  our 
Christianity  an  improvement  upon  the  Judaism  of 
Paul's  day,  and  therefore  we  live  in  a  very  different 
world  from  that  of  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
era,  yet  salvation  is  essentially  the  same  today  and 
implies  an  experience  which  is  identical  in  its  fun- 
damental phases  with  that  which  was  outlined  by 
Paul  in  these  words.  In  fact  it  should  imply  much 
more  today  than  it  did  then.  Its  negative  and  posi- 
tive characteristics  should  be  even  more  sharply  out- 
lined at  this  stage  of  the  world's  religious  and  moral 
development  than  then.  The  Christianity  of  Christ 
demands  more  of  us  today  than  when  these  words 
were  written.  Paul  was  constantly  recognizing  Pa- 
gan training  and  environment  together  with  the  in- 
fluence of  Judaistic  externalism,  and  the  members 
of  that  first  council  at  Jerusalem  in  considering  how 
much  they  ought  to  expect  from  the  Gentile  Chris- 
tians, were  singularly  sympathetic,  fair  and  lenient 
with  them,  imposing  only  that  which  was  reasonable 
in  view  of  all  conditions  and  opportunities.  Today 
the  councils  of  the  church  have  reason  to  make  the 
standards  of  salvation  far  higher  to  humanity  than 
they  did  then.  All  progress  in  Christianity  suggests 
deeper  meaning  to  salvation,  imposes  greater  moral 
and  religious  obligations  and  calls  humanity  to  no- 
bler ideals  than  that  which  has  preceded.  Every 
mountain  top  shows  another  higher  and  grander,  just 
in  advance.     This  is  what  it  signifies  to  experience 


76  PEESO^AL  RELIGION 

8alvation.  And  strange  as  it  may  seem,  all  of  this 
progress  and  possibility  is  included  in  the  con- 
ception which  is  outlined  in  these  tiny  and  appar- 
ently insignificant  prepositions. 

The  first  word,  Ek  or  Apo  that  we  find  here,  is 
one  that  is  used  many  times  in  the  ]^ew  Testament. 
It  signifies  ''out  of"  or  "from"  and  when  applied 
to  salvation  gives  to  us  a  very  vivid  description  of 
one  phase  of  that  momentous  experience.  Paul  used 
it  advisedly  of  himself  as  well  as  all  those  who  had 
come  to  a  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  experi- 
ence of  salvation  to  him  and  to  them  implied  a  com- 
ing out  from  something.  Something  was  left  behind. 
Abraham  went  out  from  his  own  country.  Israel 
went  out  from  Egypt.  The  Christian  goes  out  from 
a  condition  which  is  real  when  salvation  is  his  ex- 
perience. Salvation  is  not  real  unless  one  is  saved 
from  that  which  he  should  be.  Jesus  came  to  save 
people  from  just  this.  There  was  something  the  trou- 
ble with  man.  No  person  could  look  out  upon  the 
Pagan  or  Jewish  world  at  the  time  of  Christ  and 
honestly  characterize  it  without  recognizing  its  relig- 
ious and  moral  obliquity.  It  was  in  a  condition  from 
which  man  must  escape  or  he  could  not  be  saved. 
Paul  knew  the  life  of  the  Pagan  world  thoroughly, 
having  been  in  the  very  midst  of  it  during  his  travels 
and  he  sought  to  make  plain  to  the  disciples  at  Colos- 
sae,  that  the  salvation  which  Jesus  came  to  make 
known  to  them,  was  something  totally  different  from 
the  Pagan  life  about  them  and  implied  an  experience 
of  transformation  which  was  far  from  imaginary. 
And  today  while  progress  in  religion  and  ethics  is  so 
evident,  salvation  means  being  saved  from  some- 
thing which   is   real.      The   difference  between  the 


THE  PKEPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION      77 

Pagan  and  Christian  world  was  a  fact  then.  There 
is  still  a  difference  in  the  world  today.  We  may  con- 
ceive of  religion  in  far  broader  terais  than  the  early 
Christians  did,  look  at  the  world  very  differently 
from  what  they  did,  and  rejoice  in  the  fact  that  the 
church  does  not  contain  all  the  goodness  in  the  world, 
yet  there  is  much  within  and  around  us  for  each  of  us 
to  be  saved  from,  if  we  are  to  be  the  Christians  that 
Christ  would  have  us  be. 

Paul  describes  this  condition  out  of  which  Christ 
saves  men  with  the  single  word  "darkness."  This 
was  particularly  applicable  to  those  for  whom  it  was 
first  intended.  There  seems  to  be  no  word  better 
suited  to  picture  their  condition  in  Paganism  than 
this.  It  is  a  most  inclusive  word.  It  could  properly 
be  used  to  describe  the  whole  comprehensive  signifi- 
cance of  the  superstitions  and  immoral  environment 
of  these  early  Christians.  He  might  have  used  other 
words  but  not  one  would  have  been  as  pertinent  and 
powerful.  The  more  one  thinks  it  over,  the  more 
conclusive  is  the  evidence  that  the  word  "darkness" 
is  the  one  word  to  convey  to  the  mind  the  whole  ter- 
rible, awful  state  which  they,  in  Christ,  were  to  be 
saved  from.  Think  first  of  all  of  the  polytheism 
which  surrounded  them.  Hundreds  of  gods  and  yet 
no  God.  Gods  of  wood  and  stone  by  the  ton,  but  no 
living  God,  to  trust  and  know,  to  tie  to,  and  fellow- 
ship with.  Superstition  everywhere  but  no  vital  re- 
ligious faith.  Men  and  women  desiring  to  know 
God  but  no  sure  way  to  find  him.  No  clear  light 
from  Heaven.  Darkness  almost  everywhere.  Then 
their  perplexity  in  the  midst  of  false  philosophies. 
Paul's  letter  was  written  especially  to  help  them  re- 
garding a  particular  philosophy  which  later  devel- 


18  PERSONAL  RELIGIOl!^ 

oped  into  Gnosticism.  It  was  so  serious  that  it  was 
undermining  their  faith  in  God  and  was  reducing 
their  Christianity  to  impractical  musings  and  ob- 
servances. The  genius  of  this  error  was  that  God 
was  inaccessible,  onlj  to  be  approached  through  a 
long  line  of  celestial  intermediaries,  (of  whom  Jesus 
was  but  one),  emanations  from  His  Essence  and  all 
combining  to  compose  his  divine  plenitude.  These 
must  be  adored  and  as  matter  was  polluting  and  the 
body  a  degradation,  self  abasement  and  rigid  asceti- 
cism must  be  practiced  as  a  necessary  preliminary  in 
their  struggle  to  reach  God.  This  developed  a  sys- 
tem of  outward  observances  and  the  whole  philosophy 
thrust  life's  duties  into  the  background.  In  the 
acceptance  of  such  philosophies  they  were  in  the 
dark.  Then  there  was  the  darkness  because  of  sin. 
Paganism  was  morally  corrupt.  People  were  living 
in  unnamable  iniquities.  Evil  was  a  power  control- 
ling man  in  general.  The  pure  and  noble  were  ex- 
ceptions. Many  a  soul  was  in  immoral  dungeon 
darkness.  Sin  had  shut  off  the  light.  With  the  light 
gone  out,  the  soul  was  in  bondage  to  its  baser  desires 
and  appetites  and  the  inky  blackness  of  the  pit  was 
all  too  real.  Associations  were  evil.  Fellowships 
of  character  were  not  numerous.  Iniquity  moved  in 
crowds.  The  atmosphere  was  thick.  Moral  reckless- 
ness was  popular.  Conscience  seemed  to  be  dead. 
The  soul  was  in  prison,  with  few  if  any  windows  open 
to  God  and  light.  And  with  it  all  there  was  a  hope- 
lessness regarding  life  that  made  suicide  far  from 
uncommon.  Therefore  Paul  appealed  to  them  to  be 
saved  from  something.  Salvation  implied  getting 
away  from  polytheism,  false  philosophies  and  most 
of  all  from  sin,  and  its  abject  despair.     They  must 


THE  PREPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION      79 

no  longer  associate  with  evil,  they  must  come  out 
from  the  sinful  world  and  thej  must  be  separate  from 
wicked  companions  (2  Cor.  6:17.)  Salvation  was 
first  of  all  a  movement  away  from  everything  and 
everyone  sinful. 

It  is  a  long  time  since  Paul  wrote  these  words  with 
their  direct  application  to  conditions  of  those  days 
in  Colossae,  but  we  are  impressed  with  the  fact  that 
salvation  today  includes  all  that  this  preposition 
'*Ek"  implied  then.  Men  today  may  not  have  the 
same  form  of  polytheism  to  be  saved  from  but  there 
is  a  devotion  to  gods  of  wood  and  stone  which  is 
far  worse  and  more  serious  in  its  results  than  was 
their  superstitious  belief  in  many  gods  then.  They 
knew  no  better,  man  today  does.  Present  day  en- 
lightenment forbids  any  conscientious  devotion  to 
materialistic  ideals  and  to  gods  of  gold  and  earthly 
success.  The  reason  of  man  in  the  light  of  Christian 
revelation,  makes  such  devotion  a  practical  atheism. 
To  have  no  consciousness  of  a  Heavenly  Father  is 
darkness  indeed.  Salvation  today  implies  being  de- 
livered from  the  gloom  which  is  the  result  of  having 
no  positive  and  clear  religious  faith.  And  erroneous 
philosophies  persist  today  and  even  increase  in  num- 
bers. Not  all  that  defines  religion  differently  from 
the  past  is  bad  philosophy  but  some  of  these  ap- 
parently new  ideas  are  dangerous  to  untutored  minds 
and  all  of  them  more  or  less  perplex  the  sincere  soul. 
There  are  many  good  people  today  who  are  in  the 
dark  because  of  the  divergent  views  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, who  are  lost  in  the  maze  of  literalism,  who  are 
uneasy  by  reason  of  the  conflict  of  religious  opinions 
and  practices  and  who  are  distressed  not  a  little  in 
the  presence  of  current  philosophies  of  religion  and 


80  PERSO^-AL  RELIGION 

ethics.  To  these  salvation  should  mean  being  saved 
from  the  false  alternatives  of  statements  of  truth, 
from  the  many  disastrous  philosophies  which  demand 
acceptance  and  from  the  beliefs  which  tend  to  mys- 
tify and  make  life  impractical.  There  is  a  salvation 
in  Jesus  Christ  which  makes  clear  some  fundamental 
conceptions  of  life,  which  takes  a  man  out  from  the 
distressing  condition  of  uncertainty  in  religious  mat- 
ters and  gives  him  a  simple  and  beautiful  thought  of 
life  and  its  opportunities  and  responsibilities,  which 
makes  living  a  real  delight.  I  firmly  believe  that 
there  are  some  philosophers  today  who  are  revealing 
ideas  which  will  prove  to  be  the  salvation  of  many 
minds  from  intellectual  perplexities  which  were  des- 
tined to  ruin  peace  and  prospects.  Eucken  is  one. 
But  after  all  the  great  fact  that  salvation  stands  for 
today  as  revealed  in  this  tiny  preposition  "Ek"  is 
being  saved  from  sin.  It  is  in  the  moral  realm  that 
we  today  must  experience  something  if  we  are  to  be 
saved.  Sins  change,  sin  remains  the  same.  Paul 
could  come  here  today  and  point  out  just  about  as 
much  for  us  to  be  saved  from  as  he  did  those  Colos- 
sians  in  the  first  century,  but  of  course  the  sins 
would  not  be  exactly  the  same  in  form.  And  if  Jesus 
were  to  return  to  earth  he  would  make  plain  to  all 
that  the  essential  element  which  man  needed  to  be 
saved  out  of  was  iniquity.  Jesus  came  to  save  man 
from  impurity,  injustice,  unbrotherliness  and  every 
form  of  evil  in  mind,  heart  and  life.  And  these  per- 
sist today.  No  one  can  study  the  conditions  of  hu- 
man life  at  this  moment  and  fairly  conclude  about 
the  facts  evident  there,  without  recognizing  that  there 
is  sin  of  all  kinds  in  the  world  to  be  saved  from. 
All  Europe  seems  to  have  succumbed  to  sin  ai  this 


THE  PREPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION      81 

writing.  America  is  growing  better,  millions  are 
fighting  iniquity  in  public  places  but  no  one  dares  to 
think  that  there  is  no  badness  abounding  anywhere. 
The  need  of  both  individual  and  social  humanity  is 
still  at  this  hour  to  be  saved  from  evil.  If  Jesus  were 
here  he  would  not  minimize  it.  He  would  not  act 
as  if  it  were  imaginary  and  nothing  to  bother  about 
escaping  from.  He  would  show  it  up  anew.  He 
would  make  men  understand  again  its  real  nature  and 
he  would  declare  that  salvation  signifies  without  ques- 
tion getting  out  of  sin.  Man  must  get  away  from  it. 
He  would  state  that  the  one  necessary  prerequisite  of 
salvation  is  to  get  sin  out  of  man.  Man  is  saved  from 
it  only  as  it  is  taken  out  of  him.  It  is  not  so  much 
the  thing  that  is  external  to  him  which  is  pressing 
upon  him  from  without,  that  he  must  get  away  from, 
but  rather  something  within,  his  thoughts,  his  mo- 
tives, his  ideals  and  his  spirit,  which  must  be  gotten 
out  of  him.  He  is  to  recognize  what  it  is,  to  be  able 
to  discern  its  presence  and  know  the  experience  of 
being  freed  from  it.  He  is  not  to  bother  so  much 
about  some  definitions  of  it,  or  some  minor  mani- 
festations of  it.  He  is  to  understand  its  real  na- 
ture and  spirit  and  get  rid  of  the  thing  itself.  This 
is  salvation. 

Man  is  also  to  be  saved  from  a  world  of  evil  asso- 
ciations. This  does  not  imply  that  the  world  is  neces- 
sarily evil.  Our  world  view  is  not  that  of  the  New 
Testament  writers  who  conceived  of  the  world  be- 
ing owned  and  controlled  by  the  devil  and  all  its 
life  and  associations  wicked.  We  do  not  so  read 
Jesus'  ideas  We  do  however  recognize  that  there 
is  much  evil  in  the  world.  To  be  saved  from  the 
world  and  worldliness  is  not  to  become  ascetic  and 


82  PERSO:^AL  EELIGION 

leare  human  associations  of  evil  in  the  world.  We 
are  not  to  turn  away  from  it  as  if  the  world  were 
essentially  sinful  and  to  be  abandoned  to  iniquity, 
but  rather  to  be  separated  from  that  part  of  it  which 
is  evil.  This  recognizes  associations  of  evil  and  sal- 
vation implies  coming  out  from  them.  There  are 
some  people  whom  the  Christian  cannot  properly  be 
with.  Those  who  are  bent  on  evil,  those  who  associ- 
ate us  with  their  sin,  those  who  would  take  us  into 
their  iniquitous  plans  and  ask  us  for  our  sanction, 
those  who  together  work  destruction  to  humanity, 
who  exploit  their  own  brothers  and  sisters,  those  who 
effect  us  immorally,  and  those  who  have  no  respect 
for  Jesus  and  his  religion,  are  not  the  ones  for  us 
to  associate  with.  Man's  salvation  includes  a  parting 
company  with  them  as  associates.  This  does  not  im- 
ply that  we  do  not  desire  to  help  them  and  would 
not  do  our  utmost  to  turn  them  away  from  their  sin, 
but  with  such  ideals  and  spirit  as  personified  in 
them,  we  must  have  nothing  to  do.  A  man  is  saved 
as  he  leaves  the  political  "bosses"  alone,  as  he  turns 
emphatically  away  from  the  saloon  and  brewery  in- 
terests, as  he  refuses  to  connive  with  state  wide  cor- 
ruptionists,  as  he  gives  the  cold  shoulder  to  industrial 
exploitation  of  humanity,  as  he  stands  high  and  dry 
from  those  who  are  guilty  of  iniquitous  methods  in 
business,  and  as  he  stays  aloof  from  every  individual 
or  company  of  individuals,  that  lives  avowedly  by 
sinful  practices. 

There  is  a  second  preposition  here  which  in- 
terprets another  side  of  salvation.  It  is  the  word 
"Eis."  It  means  "into."  Paul  writes  that  they  were 
to  consider  that  they  had  been  translated  "out  of,"  or 
"from"  the  powers  of  darkness  "into"  the  Kingdom 


THE  PKEPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION       83 

of  the  Son  of  his  love.  Here  we  have  the  conception 
that  salvation  is  something  more  than  getting  hu- 
manity out  of  the  pit  of  sin  and  the  prison  house  of 
darkness.  It  is  more  than  escaping  something.  It  is 
even  more  than  excluding  sin  from  the  life.  It  is 
much  greater  than  getting  away  from  evil  compan- 
ions and  having  nothing  to  do  with  workers  of  in- 
iquity. To  have  been  saved  from  these  is  a  miracu- 
lous accomplishment  and  no  one  has  yet  been  able  to 
state  that  all  which  he  should  be  saved  from  has 
been  achieved.  It  is  more  than  a  negative  deliver- 
ance. It  reaches  out  toward  something.  It  has  a 
positive  ideal  to  secure  and  maintain.  There  is  a 
definite  result  to  obtain.  One  is  to  be  changed  from 
a  condition  which  is  irreligious,  or  nonreligious  and 
unethical  to  a  condition  which  is  religious  and  actu- 
ally ethical.  That  is,  there  is  a  real  experience  which 
has  many  positive  characteristics,  which  one  is  to  be 
initiated  into  and  to  be  developed  in.  We  are  not 
taken  from  something  to  nothing.  We  are  not  to  es- 
cape the  dungeon  to  find  ourselves  on  a  barren  plain 
of  religious  experience  with  nothing  but  the  con- 
sciousness of  having  gotten  out  of  its  blackness  and 
sin,  to  revel  in.  That  consciousness  is  worth  some- 
thing we  are  sure,  but  there  is  a  rich  and  wonderful 
experience  awaiting  us.  Jesus  introduces  man  into 
that  which  is  at  once  exhilarating,  satisfying,  and 
beautiful.  There  will  be  something  to  learn,  and 
feel,  and  enjoy  and  do  every  moment.  He  will  show 
what  the  Father  desires  to  give  to  and  make  of  his 
child.  There  will  really  be  no  limit  to  the  positive 
side  of  this  salvation.  No  one  has  ever  experienced 
all  that  the  Father  had  for  him  yet.  The  world  has 
recorded  the  lives  of  God's  saints  but  no  life  has 


84  PEKSONAL  HELIGIOIT 

called  on  him  for  all  he  could  do  or  has  been  able 
to  know  all  he  could  make  known.  The  great  wide 
stretches  of  soul  and  life  experience  which  God  is  ca- 
pable of  leading  a  human  being  into,  are  opened  up 
before  man  in  the  salvation  that  Jesus  came  to  make 
known  to  the  world.  Too  many  stop  short  in  sal- 
vation. They  are  satisfied  with  too  little.  The 
Father  waits  to  make  real  all  he  can  but  the  child 
is  too  busy  with  the  lesser  to  receive  the  greater. 
The  Father  plans  much  for  his  child,  he  would  take 
him  into  experiences  which  would  enlarge  his  soul, 
widen  his  vision,  deepen  his  consciousness  of  the  eter- 
nal and  open  up  to  him  the  wonders  of  his  Kingdom 
plans,  but  the  child  has  been  satisfied  to  have  been 
kept  from  heinous  sin,  moral  ruin  and  soul  destruc- 
tion. To  have  God  save  him  from  these  sins  and 
keep  him  in  a  fairly  straight  pathway  for  life,  is 
enough.  All  the  time  the  Father  was  pressing  him- 
self by  his  spirit  upon  him,  asking  him  to  leave  some 
trivial  things  that  he  might  go  with  him  to  some 
spiritual  mountain  heights,  view  with  him  his  pur- 
poses, see  with  him  what  he  saw  in  humanity  about 
him,  understand  with  him  that  which  is  worth  while 
in  view  of  eternal  values  in  life  and  move  with  him 
across  the  broad  stretches  of  his  Kingdom  enterprise, 
but  the  child  kept  singing,  "Oh,  Happy  Day  when 
Jesus  washed  my  sins  away."  The  past  was  gone 
and  that  was  enough.  The  present  would  be  glori- 
ous in  the  light  of  what  he  had  escaped  from.  He 
would  be  satisfied  to  think  what  had  been  done  and 
would  not  ask  for  or  think  of  anything  more  to  know 
in  his  life  just  now.  Conversion  was  an  end  instead 
of  a  beginning.  There  was  nothing  beyond.  Salva- 
tion is  simply  getting  out  of  sin  and  being  kept  out 


THE  PREPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION      85 

of  hell.  This  is  one  of  the  saddest  limitations  that 
man  puts  upon  himself.  The  limitations  of  good 
enough.  It  reveals  smallness  of  capacity  and  little- 
ness of  soul.  ISTe-plus-ultra-  is  not  Christianity. 
There  is  always  something  more  to  know,  be  and  do. 
Salvation  is  exploration  with  glorious  surprises  and 
fresh  experiences  every  day. 

To  be  saved  into  the  Kingdom  of  the  Son  of  his 
love  implies  experiencing  a  fellowship  with  Christ 
which  becomes  at  once  a  new  life.  Separation  from 
sin  means  together  with  Christ.  This  introduces  man 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  power  and  spiritual  life  of 
a  living  God.  "Into"  means  actually  getting  into  the 
life  of  God.  The  experience  of  the  life  of  God  within 
us  is  secured  by  moving  into  the  largeness  of  God's 
life  about  us.  The  whole  meaning  of  Jesus'  career 
on  earth  was  that  God  was  capable  of  taking  up  his 
abode  in  men.  That  man  could  realize  the  presence 
of  the  eternal  God  in  his  heart  and  life.  To  be 
saved  into  the  life  of  God,  into  its  spirit,  its  great- 
ness, its  power,  this  is  salvation.  Humanity  lives 
without  God  consciousness  even  after  it  is  saved  from 
some  forms  of  sin.  Man  exists  on  the  edges  of  di- 
vinity. He  seldom  gets  into  the  heart  of  God's  life. 
He  who  is  translated  into  the  Kingdom  of  the  Son 
of  his  love  knows  something  of  the  central  life  of  the 
universe  which  was  so  powerfully  manifested  in 
Jesus.  He  moves  within  its  wide  circle  and  delves 
into  its  depths.  To  experience  salvation  then  im- 
plies fundamentally  to  know  the  incoming  power  of 
Christ's  spirit.  That  is  to  feel  a  new  divine  energy 
in  one's  being.  To  be  conscious  of  a  new  spiritual 
force.  To  find  one's  self  strong  where  once  one  was 
weak,  to  possess  a  buoyancy  of  spirit,  an  invigorating 


86  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

of  the  soul,  to  feel  the  divine  pulse  beat  of  Jesus  in 
the  heart.  To  iind  new  aspirations  and  new  purposes 
and  new  feelings  after  the  high  and  the  noble  and 
true.  To  experience  the  vitality  of  the  spiritual  uni- 
verse where  God  is.  Not  a  walk  across  a  barren 
waste,  not  a  salvation  from  some  dark  room  where 
the  air  was  bad  to  a  room  where  the  air  was  too  rare 
for  the  soul.  But  the  rather  being  saved  into  a  life 
fed  on  pure  oxygen,  and  thrilled  with  the  presence 
of  the  divine  spirit.  Living  in  God  every  day.  This 
is  salvation.  Call  it  mysticism  if  you  choose,  but 
it  is  true. 

And  more  than  this,  it  implies  being  saved  into 
that  life  which  fits  into  the  spirit  and  ideals  of  the 
Son  of  his  love.  It  is  a  salvation  into  a  holiness  of 
life  and  purpose  which  is  compatible  with  the  spir- 
itual experience  of  having  the  divine  life  of  God 
within.  This  life  always  expresses  itself  ethically. 
To  Paul  salvation  implied  this  as  he  wrote  to  the 
Corinthian  Christians  contrasting  their  present  living 
with  that  of  former  days.  "Such  were  some  of  you, 
but  ye  were  washed,  ye  were  made  holy  by  the  power 
of  the  Spirit  of  God."  To  know  that  sort  of  a  moral 
and  ethical  life  which  is  compatible  with  the  King- 
dom ideals  of  Jesus,  is  the  salvation  which  he  came 
to  save  us  to.  He  who  is  translated  into  the  King- 
dom, has  an  experience  in  relation  to  that  King- 
dom. He  cannot  be  in  it  unless  he  is  fitted  to  be. 
Salvation  makes  him  a  part  of  it  by  developing 
within  him  the  spirit  and  life  which  are  essential  to 
it.  That  Kingdom  is  fundamentally  a  spiritual  King- 
dom. Not  that  it  is  separated  from  human  life  and 
earthly  existence,  but  that  its  basis  is  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man.     Its  determining  principles  are  spir- 


THE  PEEPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION"      87 

itiial  and  pertain  to  this  nature.  They  are  ethical 
of  course,  but  the  vitalizing  forces  which  maintain 
Christian  ethics  are  spiritual.  Jesus  came  to  estab- 
lish the  Kingdom  of  God.  This  means  he  came  to 
bring  man  into  a  condition  of  righteousness,  peace, 
and  holiness,  i.  e.  into  right  relations  with  man  and 
into  harmony  with  God.  His  divine  purpose  can 
only  be  accomplished  as  man  is  made  righteous  and 
holy.  So  Jesus  came  to  save  people  from  their  sins. 
Matt.  1 :21.  All  straying  and  lost  ones  must  be 
brought  into  the  Father's  fold,  so  Jesus  came  to  seek 
and  save  the  lost ;  Luke  19 :  10.  But  his  Kingdom 
would  be  temporary  if  it  did  not  possess  life,  so  Jesus 
came  to  put  man  in  touch  with  abundant  life  which 
would  prove  to  be  eternal  life ;  John  10:10  and 
5 :  24.  Kingdom  life  and  eternal  life  are  the  same. 
Jesus  came  to  save  men  from  sin  and  to  build  them 
up  into  holiness  of  character,  for  only  such  could 
make  up  his  kingdom.  He,  by  his  spirit,  would  plant 
the  seeds  of  righteousness  in  man,  for  by  this  only 
could  man  be  saved.  These  are  the  seeds  of  the 
spiritual,  ethical  Kingdom  into  which  humanity  is 
ushered.  Only  as  man  grows  them  in  his  heart  and 
life  is  he  in  the  Kingdom.  Translation  into,  there- 
fore implies  spiritual,  ethical  transfonnation  and 
takes  time. 

This  salvation  "out  of"  and  '^into"  is  not  a  process 
in  which  all  of  one  phase  is  accomplished  before  the 
other  is  begun.  'No  life  has  been  saved  entirely 
from  sin  and  no  life  has  entered  fully  into  the  rich- 
ness of  its  spiritual  inheritance  in  Christ.  The  proc- 
esses parallel  each  other.  While  one  is  being  saved 
out  of  a  life  which  was  not  harmonious  to  Christ,  he 
is  being  saved  into  a  life  which  is  in  tune  with  him. 


88  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

While  sin,  on  the  one  hand,  is  being  taken  out  of 
the  life,  holiness,  on  the  other  hand,  is  being  built 
in.  While  evil  is  diminishing  in  power  in  the  life, 
goodness  is  increasing  in  potency.  While  one  is  over- 
coming bad  habits,  noble  practices  are  becoming  the 
settled  characteristics  of  the  individual.  God  does 
not  wait  for  his  child  to  be  saved  negatively  before  he 
begins  the  positive  development  of  his  spiritual  na- 
ture. In  fact  taking  humanity  as  a  whole  and  think- 
ing of  the  salvation  process  in  the  entire  length  and 
range  of  its  activities,  one  concludes  that  man  is  de- 
veloped into  that  which  the  Father  purposes  for  him 
continuously  and  it  is  the  reception  into  his  nature 
of  those  positive  elements  of  reconstruction  which 
after  all  eifect  his  salvation  from  the  evil  and  un- 
ideal.  The  filling  of  the  life  with  goodness — is  what 
displaces  the  sinful.  One  need  not  worry  about  the 
"out  of"  if  he  knows  the  experience  of  the  "into." 
The  anxiety  of  the  human  heart  should  be  to  realize 
the  positive  side  of  this  salvation.  Lady  Henry  Som- 
erset once  said,  "I  never  had  to  leave  sinful  and 
empty  society.  It  left  me."  When  her  life  became 
filled  with  the  spirit  and  power  of  God  and  she  was 
developed  in  greatness  of  soul  and  character,  the 
things  which  once  she  revelled  in  dropped  away. 
The  expulsive  power  of  a  new  divine  life  drives  evil 
out  and  the  empty  world  hides  from  a  luminous  soul. 
It  does  not  bother  that  soul  as  it  once  did. 

There  is  still  another  implication  concerning  sal- 
vation in  the  significance  of  the  preposition.  This 
Greek  word  "Eis"  is  often  used  to  express  the  thought 
of  "unto"  or  "for"  as  well  as  "into"  and  in  the  pas- 
sage which  we  have  been  considering,  it  has  that 
meaning.     An  able  Greek  scholar  has  given  to  us 


THE  PREPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION      89 

this  rendering  of  the  verse. 

"He  has  delivered  us  from  the  authority  of  darkness  and 
caused  a  change  of  sides  for  the  Kingdom  of  the  Son  of  his 
Love." 

How  illuminating  this  translation  is.  It  makes  that 
word  "eis"  stand  out  for  something  so  definite.  In 
the  conception  of  Paul,  each  one  who  has  been  saved 
"out  of"  something  and  "into"  something  has  also 
been  saved  "unto"  something,  or  "for"  something, 
as  this  makes  clear.  There  is  an  actual  change  of 
sides  in  order  that  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ 
might  come.  The  spirit  of  God  had  a  purpose  in 
moving  man  into  the  experience  of  salvation.  It 
was  to  accomplish  the  salvation  of  society,  that  is  to 
bring  others  into  the  Kingdom  and  so  extend  its 
range  throughout  humanity.  Jesus  had  this  King- 
dom always  in  mind  and  he  called  men  to  himself 
with  a  view  to  establishing  it.  He  was  delighted  to 
reveal  to  those  about  him  the  way  to  secure  deliver- 
ance from  sin  and  all  its  destruction  and  to  introduce 
them  into  the  exalted  and  wonderful  experience  of 
spiritual  life  with  God,  but  he  never  imagined  that 
the  goal  had  been  reached,  or  that  the  individual  had 
come  to  know  the  length,  breadth,  depth  and  height 
of  salvation,  until  he  had  been  made  a  factor  in  sav- 
ing others  or  securing  the  establishment  of  the  King- 
dom among  all  men.  Thus  the  salvation  which  Jesus 
came  to  save  the  individual  to,  was  not  fully  experi- 
enced until  that  person  was  actively  engaged  in  doing 
something  definite  for  others,  and  the  salvation  which 
Jesus  came  to  secure  to  humanity  could  not  be  ex- 
perienced until  each  person  who  had  been  saved  out 
of  and  into,  was  also  giving  himself  in  service  for 


90  PERSON^AL  RELIGIOl^ 

those  in  need  about  him.  The  interrelation  of  the 
two  is  sublime.  Jesus  was  not  a  cold  blooded  utili- 
tarian who  was  going  around  hunting  for  human 
souls  and  lives  that  he  might  manipulate  and  use 
them  to  secure  the  ideal  of  his  ambition,  much  as 
a  contractor  would  look  for  pieces  of  material  with 
which  to  put  up  a  building  he  was  erecting,  or  a  mas- 
ter mechanic  would  assemble  machinery,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  a  gTcat  project,  having  no  interest  in  the  ma- 
terial itself  except  as  it  could  be  made  to  further 
the  scheme  of  his  mind.  Jesus  loved  each  human 
being,  his  passion  was  to  help  each  person  into  that 
which  would  make  life  true,  happy,  successful  and 
useful,  his  heart  went  out  with  compassion  to  all 
and  he  sought  to  save  men  individually  to  something 
in  order  that  they  might  have  the  comfort,  strength 
and  experience  they  needed.  He  never  thought  of 
them  simply  as  pieces  of  material  to  use.  He  came 
to  give  his  life  for  them  because  of  his  interest  in 
them.  Yet  this  purpose  for  the  individual  overflowed 
to  all.  He  could  not  think  of  less  than  collective  hu- 
manity. And  his  Kingdom  was  to  be  composed  of 
individuals  who  were  saved.  And  was  to  be  secured 
as  they  in  turn  became  factors  in  building  it.  And 
there  was  no  way  that  either  the  individual  or  hu- 
manity as  a  whole,  could  be  brought  to  his  ideal  un- 
less the  individual  who  had  come  to  experience  some- 
thing of  his  love  and  power,  actually  moved  unto  oth- 
ers who  had  not  thus  learned  the  true  meanine;  of  re- 
ligion  and  life.  This  is  the  meaning  in  Jesus'  mind 
of  being  translated  "out  of"  and  "into"  and  "for" 
something.  It  is  not  heartless  utility.  It  is  soul 
interest  in  one  and  all  in  the  great  human  family. 
The  change  of  sides  was  for  both  the  individual  and 


THE  PREPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION      91 

society.  The  salvation  of  each  was  conditioned  upon 
it.  As  his  objective  for  all  was  reached,  the  hum- 
blest individual  would  be  able  to  realize  his  true  sal- 
vation. 

The  elimination  of  cold  blooded  utility  however, 
does  not  lessen  the  significance  of  the  preposition 
"unto."  It  really  intensifies  it.  It  shows  how  neces- 
sary it  is  to  salvation.  Neither  the  individual  nor 
humanity  as  a  whole  can  be  saved  luiless  each  one 
who  has  been  brought  out  of  that  which  is  exceedingly 
sinful  and  into  that  which  is  noble  and  good,  actually 
enters  the  service  for  the  good  of  all.  Jesus  had  a 
task  in  relation  to  and  for  others.  Each  one  of  his 
followers  must  have  the  same.  Salvation  is  not  being 
delivered  out  of  a  problematical  hell  into  an  impos- 
sible heaven.  It  is  occuping  the  position  Christ  has 
for  us  in  this  world.  It  is  doing  the  work  that  must 
be  done  to  save  mankind.  It  means  positive,  active 
service  for  all  peoples  of  all  races  every  day.  Surely 
the  need  for  this  in  view  of  the  emancipation  of  the 
human  race  is  evident.  How  can  Jesus  see  of  the  tra- 
vail of  his  soul  and  realize  a  world  redemption,  un- 
less his  followers  give  themselves  to  the  blessed  min- 
istry for  others  ?  The  significance  of  the  word 
"unto"  in  considering  the  salvation  of  the  world  of 
mankind  is  perfectly  plain,  but  its  meaning  in  the 
salvation  of  the  individual  ought  to  be  just  as  pro- 
nounced and  clear.  We  may  state  in  truth  that  the 
surest  evidence  that  the  salvation  of  Christ  has  come 
to  us  personally  is  that  witnessed  in  the  activity  of 
our  lives  for  the  good  of  all.  If  we  know  that  our 
lives  are  given  unselfishly  unto  those  in  need  any- 
where and  everywhere  every  day,  if  we  are  really 
seeking  to  help  people  and  do  them  good,  and  we 


92  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

are  doing  it  because  we  love  Christ  and  humanity, 
then  we  may  be  very  sure  that  we  are  being  truly 
saved  "out  of,"  "into"  and  "unto"  something.  And 
there  is  little  cause  to  worry  about  either  the  "out 
of"  or  the  "into"  if  we  have  the  "unto."  Too  many 
people  are  always  inquiring  and  struggling  to  know 
if  they  have  really  gotten  all  there  is  in  religion. 
They  desire  to  be  sure  that  they  haVe  come  "into" 
all  the  riches  of  the  inheritance  which  they  feel  is 
theirs  in  Christ.  They  want  to  have  all  there  is  in 
salvation  which  is  coming  to  them.  The  real  anxiety 
should  be  the  "unto."  It  is  well  largely  to  forget  the 
"into."  Give  the  soul  and  life  to  work  for  the  bet- 
terment of  those  about  us  and  humanity  all  over  the 
world  and  the  "into"  will  take  care  of  itself.  The 
people  who  are  being  saved  "into"  something  are 
those  who  are  giving  of  themselves  in  love  for  hu- 
manity all  the  time.  It  is  impossible  for  one  thus 
to  labor  for  others  without  experiencing  the  move- 
ment into  the  richness  of  fellowship  with  Christ  and 
the  joys  of  his  salvation.  Those  who  do  this  are 
already  in  Christ  and  he  is  in  them.  He  who  is  on 
the  constant  watch  for  something  which  he  could  be 
ushered  "into"  and  is  totally  blind  to  the  opportuni- 
ties "for"  service  which  are  all  around  him,  is  losing 
the  very  salvation  he  so  much  desires.  Who  are  the 
ones  who  have  the  first,  second  and  all  the  other  bless- 
ings of  soul  and  life  that  God  has  for  them?  Are 
they  those  who  spend  their  time  almost  entirely  in 
attending  meetings  as  seekers  for  these  blessings,  who 
rush  from  one  place  to  another  where  some  chance 
may  be  given  them  to  get  in  on  some  rich  haul  of 
spiritual  experience,  or  are  they  those  who  go  as  set- 
tlement workers  to  help  the  poor,  as  humble  indi- 


THE  PREPOSITIONS  OF  SALVATION      93 

viduals  to  lend  a  hand  to  the  needy,  who  carry  the 
cup  of  cold  water  to  the  thirsty  and  who  cross  the 
seas  to  carry  some  knowledge  and  cheer  to  darkened 
sinful  heathen  ?  Who  has  the  experience  of  salva- 
tion, the  parasite  or  the  propagandist,  the  beneficiary 
or  the  benefactor,  the  seeker  or  the  saviour  ?  Is 
there  one  who  could  imagine  that  Jane  Addams,  or 
Jacob  Eiis,  Robert  Moffatt  or  William  Carey,  Lady 
Henry  Somerset,  or  Mrs.  Ballington  Booth  have  not 
found  their  salvation  "into"  as  they  have  given  their 
souls  and  lives  "unto"  others  ?  Last  winter  Dr. 
Charles  MacKensie,  a  medical  Missionary  in  China, 
a  friend  of  my  boyhood  and  a  brother  beloved  in  the 
ministry,  came  to  Rochester  and  told  us  of  the  labor 
of  love  that  he  was  engaged  in  the  land  of  the  East. 
His  life  from  morn  till  night  every  day  is  one  for 
others.  Hard,  sacrificing  service  it  is  that  he  gives. 
Nights  of  vigil  by  the  sick,  days  of  ministry  to  the 
needy  make  up  his  regime.  He  however  found  his 
own  salvation  in  it.  His  soul  was  aglow  with  the 
light  of  Christ.  He  had  no  time  to  think  much  about 
what  he  was  being  developed  "into."  But  his  service 
for  others  was  moving  him  rapidly  to  the  full  rich  ex- 
perience of  the  Master's  presence  every  day.  The 
"unto"  had  become  his  salvation.  He  was  being 
made  like  Christ.  The  graces  that  are  indispensable 
to  such  a  character  were  being  developed  so  wonder- 
fully. This  explains  why  some  declare  that  after  all 
"service  is  salvation."  Taken  together,  these  prepo- 
sitions certainly  emphasize  a  most  complete  Chris- 
tian experience. 


CHAPTER    FIVE 
THE    ESSENTIAL    ATONEMENT 

AS  we  enter  the  arena  of  religion  the  subjects  of 
God,  sin,  retribution  and  reconciliation  or 
atonement,  stand  out  clearly  as  being  very  important. 
Innate  in  man  is  the  sense  of  something  wrong  between 
him  and  his  God  therefore  the  need  for  reconcilia- 
tion. Sin,  retribution  and  reconciliation  are  the  foun- 
dation stones  upon  which  the  creed  and  worship  of 
just  about  every  religious  faith  have  been  developed. 
The  Bible  makes  atonement  in  view  of  man's  sin  one 
of  its  great  revelations.  A  study  of  the  poets  reveals 
that  this  same  theme  is  the  constantly  recurring  one 
of  their  voluminous  writings.  In  the  plot  of  human 
drama  as  it  has  been  unfolded  by  Homer,  ^schylus, 
Sophocles,  Dante,  Shakespeare,  Hawthorne,  and  a 
host  of  others,  the  effect  of  sin  upon  a  just  and  holy 
God  and  the  reconciliation  of  the  offender  have  been 
the  chief  themes.  Theologians  of  every  age  have 
recognized  that  it  is  one  of  the  primary  Christian 
truths  and  they  have  given  years  to  the  study  of  its 
significance.  Assured  of  its  integral  place  in  re- 
ligious history,  these  noble  men  have  labored  long 
and  hard  to  understand  it.  They  have  examined  the 
New  Testament  record  of  the  place  which  Christ's 
death  occupies  in  the  subject  believing  that  it  was 
closely  associated  to  man's  sin  and  salvation  and 
have  sought  earnestly  to  perceive  exactly  what  that 
was.     The  result  of  this  conscientious  research  has 

94 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT        95 

given  to  the  world  at  least  five  great  theories 
of  the  atonement,  which  are  as  follows: — The  So- 
cinian  or  Example  theory,  which  advocates  the  idea 
that  Christ  effects  humanity  to  its  salvation  by  his 
noble  example  of  faithfulness  even  unto  death.  The 
Bushnellian  or  Moral  Influence  theory  which  advo- 
cates the  idea  that  Jesus'  death  is  a  manifestation 
of  the  Love  of  God  for  man  and  effects  humanity  to 
its  salvation  by  softening  man's  heart  and  leading 
him  out  of  sin.  The  Grotian  or  Governmental  the- 
ory which  declares  that  because  of  the  necessities  en- 
tailed in  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  Jesus 
died  to  satisfy  the  demand  of  the  divine  law  that  sin 
for  all  bo  satisfactorily  dealt  with  so  that  God  could 
save  a  transgressor  without  detriment  to  the  inter- 
ests of  his  government.  The  Irvington  or  the  the- 
ory of  gradually  extirpated  depravity,  which  advo- 
cates the  idea  that  Christ  through  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  extirpated  all  the  original  depravity  of 
his  human  nature  and  reunited  it  to  God.  And  also 
that  men  are  saved  by  becoming  partakers  of  his  new 
humanity  by  faith.  The  Anselmic  or  Commercial 
theory  which  advocates  the  idea  that  Christ  bore 
the  infinite  punishment  for  sin  which  God  in  justice 
inflicted  and  therefore  satisfied  his  divine  claims  per- 
fectly and  Christ  saves  the  sinner  from  punishment 
as  that  sinner  accepts  him.  These  theories  have 
been  held  by  the  church  at  different  periods  of  her 
history,  yet  no  single  theory  has  been  accepted  by  all 
theologians  at  any  one  time.  The  subject  has  been 
a  controversial  one  ever  since  men  began  to  formu- 
late theories  about  Jesus'  relation  to  the  problem  of 
sin  and  man's  reconciliation  to  God.  The  significant 
thing  about  it  all  is  that  these  controversies  reveal 


96  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

how  important  man  has  considered  the  subject  to  be 
and  the  fact  that  we  are  still  studying  it,  are  inher- 
ently inclined  to  accept  it  as  basic  in  life  and  are 
constantly  endeavoring  to  interpret  it,  leads  us  to 
conclude  that  there  must  be  something  profoundly 
true  about  it.     Dr.  James  Martineau  once  wrote: — 

"Show  me  a  tenet  which  mankind  have  in  every  age  been 
laboring  to  demonstrate,  in  behalf  of  which  genius  has  piled 
up  structure  after  structure  of  massy  argument;  in  reference 
to  which  each  period  has  been  conscious  of  the  failure  of  the 
preceding,  and  yet  set  itself  to  try  another  turn  of  skill; 
and  after  exploring  in  vain  every  road  of  thought,  is  fresh 
and  unexhausted  still;  and  I  at  once  recognize  in  that  doc- 
trine the  very  happiest  order  of  truth,  and  precisely  because, 
all  men  trying,  no  man  can  prove  it.  No  amount,  no  dura- 
tion of  failure  sufficing  to  throw  it  off,  what  shall  I  infer  but 
that  it  is  one  of  those  things,  not  which  the  mind  must  be- 
lieve because  it  has  proved  it,  but  which  it  must  prove  be- 
cause it  has  believed  it." 

We  are  ever  coming  to  more  rational  ideas  of  this 
fundamental  truth  in  religion  and  life.  We  are  sim- 
mering the  theories  down  as  historical  evolution 
would  naturally  lead  us  to  do  and  the  atmosphere  is 
being  clarified.  These  theories  reveal  two  opposite 
ways  of  looking  at  the  relation  of  Christ's  death  to 
God  in  his  effort  to  secure  man's  reconciliation.  One 
is  that  it  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  cause  of  God's 
willingness  to  forgive  the  guilty  because  satisfaction 
was  made  to  divine  justice,  or  may  be  considered 
the  result  of  Jesus'  obedience  to  the  divine  law  of 
Love  which  was  eternal  with  God  and  which  was 
manifested  in  Jesus'  life  and  death,  this  love  spring- 
ing from  the  Father's  heart  as  he  devised  plans  for 
the  salvation  of  mankind.  This  makes  Jesus  one  who 
came  to  express  God's  love  and  willingness  and  plan 
to  save  man  rather  than  the  one  who  did  something 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT        97 

to  move  God  to  love  for  man.  All  the  theories  of 
the  atonement  which  Christ  came  to  accomplish  may 
be  classed  in  these  two  great  conflicting  conceptions. 
The  thinking  religious  world  is  devoted  to  one  or  the 
other.  The  evidence  is  that  the  latter  conception  is 
coming  more  and  more  into  prominence,  is  being 
quite  generally  accepted  and  will  eventually,  no  doubt, 
be  universally  adopted.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  as  Dr. 
Washington  Gladden  has  recently  pointed  out  after 
careful  investigation,  that  none  of  the  Presbyterian 
Seminaries  of  the  north  is  committed  to  the  penal 
substitutionary  theory  of  Christ's  work  among  men, 
and  we  venture  to  state  that  not  a  northern  Baptist, 
Methodist,  or  Congregational  Seminary  is,  therefore 
we  are  reasonably  concluding  that  the  movement  of 
thought,  in  view  of  God's  character  and  in  the  light 
of  reason  and  conscience,  is  strongly  toward  the  idea 
that  Christ  in  both  life  and  death  beautifully  mani- 
fests the  eternal  love  and  purpose  of  God,  in  the 
interests  of  his  human  children,  and  that  he  did  not 
live  or  die  to  secure  a  movement  in  God's  heart  to- 
ward man.  This  is  leading  us  to  be  conscious  of  the 
fact  that  there  need  be  no  effort  to  explore  the  mys- 
teries of  the  atonement  from  the  Father's  side.  It  is 
not  imperative  that  we  give  hours  to  anxious  inquiry 
as  to  whether  God  is  ready  to  be  reconciled  to  man 
or  not:  we  are  not  to  worry  ourselves  about  hair 
splitting  problems  of  divine  justice  and  love  in  the 
great  redemptive  scheme  of  the  Almighty  One  and 
we  are  not  to  spend  any  more  long  years  trying  to 
sound  out  in  surety  the  precise  depths  of  the  nature 
and  counsels  of  God,  regarding  man's  sin  and  his 
salvation.  We  are  to  be  happy  in  the  consciousness 
that  God  is  holy  love,  that  his  relation  to  us  is  one 


98  PERSOlSrAL  EELIGION 

of  a  father,  that  the  heart  of  this  Heavenly  Father  is 
close  to  the  hearts  of  his  children,  that  he  knows  all 
about  the  nature  and  consequences  of  sin,  that  his 
desire  is  to  have  every  child  in  harmonious  relation 
with  himself  and  that  whatever  has  been  needed  to 
be  done  on  his  part  to  bring  about  man's  reconcili- 
ation or  salvation,  has  been  done  and  whatever  is 
called  for  at  the  present  time,  is  being  done,  and 
whatever  may  be  demanded  in  the  future  will  be 
done;  that  is  absolutely  everything,  as  far  as  he  is 
concerned,  is  provided  for,  and  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
is  the  revelation  of  his  eternal  disposition  of 
love  and  helpfulness  toward  sinful  mankind.  We 
need  not  concern  ourselves  any  more  about  the 
Father's  side  of  this  reconciliation.  Let  that  be  set- 
tled at  once  and  for  all  time. 

We  understand  atonement  to  imply  the  reconcilia- 
tion of,  or  the  making  atone-ment  between,  two 
estranged  parties.  In  the  religious  significance  of 
the  word  the  meaning  is  the  bringing  together  of  God 
and  man.  We  are  convinced  that  God  had  made  his 
overtures  toward  man,  that  he  has  come  into  hu- 
manity, that  Jesus  is  a  particular  revelation  of  his 
oneness  with  his  children,  that  he  has  taken  the  initia- 
tive and  has  moved  more  than  half  way  toward  all 
who  are  morally  and  spiritually  estranged  from  him. 
In  fact  he  has  never  left  them  but  is  always  with 
them,  whether  they  are  conscious  of  it  or  not.  He 
has  done  more  than  this,  he  has  actually  planned  and 
taken  up  the  task  of  bringing  man  into  union  with 
himself.  His  objective  is  the  harmonizing  of  hu- 
manity with  his  mind  and  will,  that  is  to  secure  in 
man  a  reconciliation  to  him  which  is  vital  and  real. 
Therefore  the  essential  atonement  is  that  of  man. 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT        99 

There  is  no  question  about  the  Father,  the  problem 
is  with  the  child.  The  anxiety  should  not  be  as  to 
how  God  could  be  reconciled  to  a  sinner  but  that  the 
sinner  should  actually  be  reconciled  to  his  God.  Re- 
gardless of  how  God  may  do  it,  the  great  result  to 
achieve  is  in  man.  The  burden  of  the  Gospel  is  for 
men  to  be  right  with  God.  The  cry  of  Paul  was 
''be  ye  reconciled  to  God."  He  was  constantly  mov- 
ing upon  men  to  secure  this  result.  He  had  a  posi- 
tive conviction  regarding  God's  plan  to  reconcile.  He 
was  not  wasting  time  and  energy  discussing  that.  He 
was  not  vacillating  between  a  dozen  opinions.  His 
soul  was  settled.  He  had  concluded  something.  We 
are  not  discussing  as  to  how  perfectly  Paul  appre- 
hended the  genius  of  the  atonement  scheme.  He  was 
sure  of  God  in  the  matter.  There  were  no  misgivings 
there.  This  surety  left  him  free  to  see  what  was 
needed  in  man.  His  only  anxiety  now  was  for  man. 
He  saw  his  condition  of  moral  estrangement  clearly. 
He  grasped  the  meaning  of  his  message  to  the  Gen- 
tiles with  a  vise  like  grip.  His  confidence  in  God's 
disposition  and  plan  became  his  missionary  dynamic. 
To  reconcile  the  whole  known  world  to  God  was  his 
work.  He  threw  himself  into  the  task  of  making 
men  see  their  need,  of  bringing  them  to  a  conscious- 
ness of  their  privilege  in  Christ,  of  securing  their 
reconciliation  to  God,  with  abandon  and  zeal.  This 
was  the  essential  achievement,  this  was  the  at-one- 
ment  to  secure.  This  was  the  one  thing  to  do.  For- 
getting those  things  which  are  behind  or  not  worrying 
about  anything  about  the  Godward  side  of  it,  he  be- 
came absorbed  in  the  primary  objective  before  him. 
He  went  everywhere  calling  man  to  at-one-ment. 
And  this  is  the  primary  affair  of  the  church  today. 


100  PEESONAL  EELIGION 

We  are  to  cease  all  controversies  about  the  attitude 
of  our  Heavenly  Father  in  this  matter  of  securing 
man's  redemption.  In  the  light  of  modern  knowl- 
edge of  God's  methods  with  man,  is  the  growing  con- 
sciousness of  his  essential  goodness,  and  in  the  prog- 
ress toward  larger  and  better  conceptions  of  his  plans 
for  the  human  race,  we  are  to  be  confident  of  his  dis- 
position to  men  and  know  that  the  great  task  to  which 
Christ  has  set  us  is  not  that  of  unravelling  all  the 
intricacies  of  his  counsels,  not  that  of  following  all 
the  long  labyrinths  of  divine  processes,  but  rather 
the  task  of  actually  saving  mankind  or  bringing  man 
into  reconciliation  with  God.  We  are  to  refuse  to 
waste  our  time  in  endless  discussions  about  the  moral 
problems  of  the  atonement  on  God's  side  of  the 
great  fact,  and  to  do  this  not  because  we  dare  not 
inquire  or  cannot  come  to  any  satisfactory  conclu- 
sions, but  just  because  our  souls  are  settled  with 
Paul's  regarding  it.  ISTot  because  we  are  uncertain 
but  because  we  are  sure  of  God,  do  we  cease  quib- 
bling about  it.  We  vacillate  no  longer  between  opin- 
ions which  only  touch  the  externalities  of  it,  we  have 
arrived  at  conclusions  regarding  the  basic  principles 
of  and  elements  in  it  and  we  go  forth  sure  of  God 
and  the  message  of  the  Gospel  and  give  ourselves  with 
frank  abandon  to  the  work  of  helping  men  to  the 
reconciliation  which  is  necessary,  to  the  at-one-ment 
which  is  essential.  It  is  a  sin  to  use  time  in  fruitless 
discussion  about  God's  side  of  the  matter.  The  time 
should  be  given  to  considerations  of  how  best  to  se- 
cure man's  response  to  God.  Our  task  is  to  become 
evangels  of  the  Gospel  of  God's  love  as  revealed  in 
Jesus,  to  make  others  as  sure  of  the  Father's  dispo- 
sition toward  man  as  we  are,  to  become  in  this  world 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT      101 

ministers  of  actual  reconciliation,  to  give  ourselves 
to  the  service  of  humanity  in  love  and  sacrifice,  and 
to  lead  mankind  to  receive  that  spirit  and  adopt  those 
principles  by  which  alone  man  can  be  reconciled  to 
God.  This  means  evangelism,  missions,  social  service 
and  efforts  for  vt^orld  wide  human  betterment.  If 
this  had  been  done  in  the  past,  we  would  have  been 
a  thousand  years  in  advance  of  our  present  Christian 
achievement.  The  world  would  have  been  so  much 
nearer  Jesus'  ideal  that  in  all  probability  the  Euro- 
pean war  of  1914  would  have  been  an  impossibility. 

THE    ESSENTIAL    ATONEMENT    DEFINED 

If  this  actual  condition  in  man  of  something 
which  may  be  described  as  reconciliation,  is  the 
objective  of  Jesus'  entire  life  work,  then  it  is 
imperative  that  we  ascertain  what  it  is.  The  ideal 
of  Jesus  defines  it.  We  may  know  by  study- 
ing his  words  and  understanding  his  life  purpose. 
He  made  it  very  clear  that  he  came  to  bring 
man  into  harmony  with  God  an,d  this  harmony 
was  his  reconciliation.  He  found  man  more  or  less 
out  of  touch  with  God,  some  rebellious  against  him, 
some  quite  entirely  estranged  from  him  and  all  men 
failing  in  their  privilege  of  union  with  him.  His 
great  life  work  was  to  have  them  brought  into  right 
relations  with  God  his  Heavenly  Father.  This  he 
considered  fundamental  in  salvation.  This  was  the 
real  genius  of  the  atonement  which  he  came  to  accom- 
plish. There  could  be  no  atonement  without  it. 
When  considered  fully,  it  is  the  "summum  bonum" 
of  the  reconciliation  Jesus  came  to  secure  in  man- 
kind.    He  never  used  the  word  atonement  or  recon- 


102  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

ciliation,  but  the  idea  it  represented  was  clearly  con- 
ceived and  stated.  By  parable  and  precept,  he  sought 
to  impress  this  idea  upon  those  about  him.  He  con- 
stantly referred  to  God  as  a  father  and  continually 
declared  that  man  should  trust  and  love  him  and 
be  conformed  to  the  Father's  ideal  for  him.  The 
parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  emphasizes  this  strongly. 
The  very  essence  of  religion,  to  Jesus,  was  faith  in 
God  and  harmony  with  his  divine  laws.  As  man  pos- 
sessed his  spirit,  conformed  to  his  will,  partook  of  his 
character  and  adopted  his  purposes,  he  experienced 
the  atonement.  He  must  become  closely  identified 
with  the  Heavenly  Father  in  all  these  ways  if  he  was 
to  be  reconciled  to  him.  'No  atonement  is  real  un- 
less the  child  loves  what  the  father  loves,  seeks  to  be 
what  he  would  have  him  be,  endeavors  to  do  what  he 
would  have  him  do  and  makes  the  effort  to  have  the 
life  in  its  entirety,  conform  to  his  holy  will.  It  is 
coming  into  conscious  union  with  him.  No  cross 
purposes  or  passions,  but  rather  happy  acqui- 
escence to  his  desires.  Not  simply  seeking  to  obey 
his  commands.  Not  struggling  to  keep  his  rules, 
but  becoming  one  with  his  very  self.  Feeling  a  de- 
lightful nearness  to  him,  being  at  home  with  him, 
conscious  of  his  presence  through  the  whole  live  long- 
day,  entering  with  joy  into  his  plans,  thrilled  with 
the  experience  of  knowing  him  and  understanding 
something  of  his  counsels  and  fellowshiping  with  him 
in  all  his  majestic  purposes  and  holy  hopes  for  the 
world  of  mankind  he  loves.  That  is,  experiencing  a 
God  consciousness  which  is  vital,  real,  natural  and 
continual.  This  is  reconciliation.  This  is  the  at- 
one-ment  which  Jesus  came  to  secure.  And  it  in- 
cludes adjustment  to  the  moral  order  of  God,  accept- 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT      103 

ance  of  His  basic  principles  of  the  universe,  recog- 
nition of  and  harmony  with  the  eternal  laws  of  a 
wise  and  loving  Heavenly  Father,  an  attitude  toward 
the  facts  of  life  which  is  radically  different  from  the 
Stoic,  and  a  compliance  with  the  divine  movements 
of  humanity  which  make  for  the  Kingdom  of  God 
among  men.  Reconciliation  is  the  greatest  experi- 
ence that  can  come  to  man,  a  feeling  that  one  is  in 
tune  with  the  infinite;  in  harmony  with  the  great 
truths  of  God  and  life. 

And  where  there  has  been  deliberate  rebellion 
against  God  and  persistent  transgression  of  his  loving 
will,  there  must  be  a  condition  of  heart  which  reveals 
that  one  is  sorrowful  in  view  of  his  sins  of  estrange- 
ment, that  he  is  ashamed  of  his  willful  waywardness, 
that  he  now  wants  to  be  in  his  Father's  life  and  plans 
once  more,  that  he  has  no  disposition  to  turn  away 
from  him,  that  his  will  is  one  with  the  Father's,  and 
he  is  ready  to  respond  to  his  calls  whatever  they  may 
be.  That  is,  the  prodigal  comes  to  the  consciousness 
of  Father,  sorrows  for  what  he  has  done  because  it 
is  so  opposed  to  his  father's  love  and  desire  for  him, 
turns  to  father,  begins  the  journey  to  the  father,  finds 
a  place  on  his  neck,  pours  out  his  soul  in  ang-uish  of 
spirit,  feels  the  father's  embrace,  sees  his  smile  of 
pardon,  takes  his  place  in  the  home,  becomes  one  with 
the  father's  hopes  for  him  and  lives  in  delightful 
union  with  him.  This  is  the  experience  of  reconcilia- 
tion.    Anything  less  is  not. 

The  crying  need  of  the  world  is  for  this  filial  piety, 
or  the  response  of  the  soul  to  the  Heavenly  Father. 
Sabatier  defines  piety  as  the  sensitiveness  of  the  heart 
for  God.  It  is  this  sort  of  religious  experience  that  is 
the  essence  of  reconciliation.     It  is  something  vastly 


104  PERSOl^AL  EELIGION 

more  than  accepting  dogmas  and  submitting  to  rites, 
attending  church,  and  adopting  external  forms  of 
religious  exercises.  These  may  or  may  not  express 
man's  development  toward  oneness  with  God.  They 
are  not  the  essential  experience  that  the  Father  wants 
his  children  to  have.  They  are  not  the  heart  of  re- 
ligion at  all.  There  is  no  surety  of  reconciliation  in 
them.  One  may  go  through  all  these  religious  forms 
and  not  be  reconciled  to  God.  The  very  soul  of  at- 
one-ment  is  in  a  deep,  actual,  conscious  experience 
of  union  with  God.  It  cannot  be  anything  less. 
There  may  be  external  helps  but  unless  the  person, 
in  his  own  deepest  self,  possesses  something  of  this 
piety,  then  the  essential  reconciliation  has  not  been 
begun.  How  Jesus  exposed  the  superficiality  of  the 
religious  forms  of  his  day!  He  cut  through  them 
right  and  left  and  showed  up  their  hollowness.  Ev- 
erywhere he  went,  he  called  them  to  heart  piety,  to 
true  and  real  relations  with  God  his  father  and  made 
plain  to  them  that  any  other  idea  of  reconciliation 
would  be  inadequate. 

AT-ONE-MENT    WITH    GOD    THEOUGH    EECONCILIATION 
WITH  MAN 

Some  one  may  ask,  where  is  God  that  I  may  be- 
come reconciled  to  him  ?  One  might  answer.  He  sur- 
rounds us  and  we  may  reach  him  through  those  mys- 
tic avenues  of  approach  which  he  has  appointed  as  the 
way  to  him.  But  these  avenues  are  very  hard  for 
most  people  to  find.  They  seem  to  have  no  well  de- 
fined limitations  or  points  of  direction.  One  gets 
lost  very  easily  in  wide  hazy  stretches  of  psychic 
and  mental  areas  where  there  are  no  boundaries  and 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATON"EMENT      105 

apparently  no  guide  posts,  and  which,  after  explor- 
ing for  long  periods,  reveal  no  God  to  deal  with. 
There  seems  to  be  little  that  is  tangible  to  touch  and 
there  is  no  one  to  see  and  know;  how  can  one  estab- 
lish right  relations  with  him?  This  is  not  foolish 
babble.  It  is  all  too  real  to  millions.  Perhaps  St. 
Francis,  or  St.  Bernard,  or  Evelyn  Underbill  may 
establish  a  conscious  union  with  God  in  the  cloister 
with  ease,  but  the  rank  and  file  of  humanity  do  not. 
And  it  is  true  that  the  scientific  mystic  cannot  reach 
him  in  that  way  alone.  But  why  not  think  of  him 
dwelling  in  humanity,  and  why  not  say  to  the  one 
who  asked  the  question  "where  is  he  that  I  may  be 
reconciled  to  him,"  you  will  find  him  in  human  be- 
ings about  you,  and  in  your  dealings  with  people  of 
flesh  and  blood  you  may  establish  right  relations  with 
him.  There  is  a  soul  to  humanity  and  that  soul  is 
God.  This  is  why  religion,  the  religion  that  Jesus 
taught,  is  so  closely  allied  to  and  so  truly  tested  by 
man's  dealing  with  his  fellowmen.  This  is  why 
Jesus  made  the  law  of  love  to  our  neighbor  the  second 
great  law  of  God.  As  men  loved  each  other,  they 
loved  God  because  God  was  in  humanity.  It  is  the 
law  of  God  that  at-one-ment  with  him  shall  come 
through  reconciliation  with  mankind.  Therefore 
Jesus  constantly  appealed  to  men  to  treat  others  with 
consideration  in  love.  He  came  purposely  to  secure 
this  at-one-ment  of  man  with  man.  He  knew  of  no 
way  that  man  could  be  reconciled  to  God  without  it. 
To  be  reconciled  to  God  simply  implied  to  be  con- 
formed to  his  ideal  of  human  relationship.  God  is 
not  one  sitting  on  a  throne  demanding  that  his  chil- 
dren pay  some  special  attention  to  him  for  his  own 
sake  and  glory.     He  is  one  in  humanity,  one  in  the 


106  PERSONAL  RELIGIOIT 

life  of  his  divine  family  and  at-one-ment  with  him, 
is  of  necessity,  establishing  a  harmonious  relation- 
ship to  the  members  of  the  entire  family  of  humanity. 
This  is  the  fundamental  requirement  of  reconcili- 
ation. There  is  nothing  arbitrary  about  God's  atone- 
ment plan  and  laws.  They  are  a  vital  part  of  his 
entire  cosmic  human  scheme.  They  are  necessary  in 
view  of  his  relationship  to  humanity.  His  plan  for 
the  human  race  is  to  develop  that  race  according  to 
his  highest  ideals  for  it,  and  in  doing  this,  he  iden- 
tifies himself  with  humanity  as  a  whole,  as  well  as 
every  human  being  individually  who  will  have  him. 
His  ideal  for  humanity  cannot  be  secured  except  as 
each  one  seeks  in  his  relationship  to  his  fellows  to 
do  as  God  would  have  him  or  in  other  words  treat 
his  fellowmen  ideally.  So  that  the  reconciliation 
which  God  must  have  in  order  to  accomplish  his 
divine  purposes  is  that  which  is  represented  by  right 
relations  between  man  and  man.  Sin  is  the  wrong 
relation  of  one  man  to  another,  it  is  against  man  him- 
self, it  is  injury  to  him,  it  is  unkindness  to  him,  but 
it  is  also  against  God  himself  because  God  is  so  iden- 
tified with  humanity  and  for  the  reason  that  his  plans 
are  frustrated  because  of  it.  Therefore  the  essential 
reconciliation  is  that  of  man  with  man.  This  is 
the  only  atonement  that  fits  into  the  Father's  plan. 
Anything  else  would  be  outside  of  himself  and  out- 
side of  his  moral  world  order.  Only  as  man  quits 
his  sinful  selfish  practices  with  other  men,  only  as  he 
comes  to  deal  with  them  justly,  lovingly,  brotherly 
and  unselfishly,  only  as  he  gives  his  life  talents  of 
body,  mind  and  heart  to  their  welfare  is  he  experienc- 
ing the  reconciliation  which  his  Heavenly  Father 
desires  to  secure  in  him.     Only  as  the  spirit  of  love 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT      107 

dominates  him  in  his  life  with  a  single  human  indi- 
vidual, in  his  home,  in  his  neighborhood,  in  his  com- 
munity, city,  state,  nation  and  world,  is  he  reconciled 
to  God.  As  sin  is  primarily  the  treason  of  one  hu- 
man being  in  his  relation  to  the  many  about  him, 
reconciliation  or  forgiveness  can  only  be  secured  as 
man  becomes  to  each  and  all  what  love  and  justice 
demand  he  should,  and  only  as  he  proves  it  by  loyalty 
to  the  interests  of  all  human  beings. 

In  March,  1914,  it  was  my  privilege  to  read  a 
message  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 
which  will  never  be  effaced  from  my  memory.  He 
drew  the  picture  of  Benedict  Arnold  and  his  grievous 
sin  against  his  country  in  his  own  inimitable  way 
and  stated  that  the  genius  of  his  sin  was  treason 
against  the  community  of  humanity.  He  further 
stated  that  just  about  every  human  being  had  more 
or  less  of  the  Benedict  Arnold  principle  in  him  and 
before  life  was  over  was  sure  to  give  evidence  of  it. 
He  then  declared  that  there  could  be  no  atonement 
unless  all  of  us  who  had  been  thus  guilty  of  treason 
to  the  community  of  humanity,  were  brought  into 
right  relations  with  the  Master  of  the  Community. 
He  also  said  that  man  must  be  reconciled  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  community  whom  he  had  sinned  against. 
A  sin  against  the  community  signifies  an  injury  to 
each  member.  All  have  suffered  and  all  must  be 
dealt  with.  Each  one  must  in  some  way  effect  an 
atonement  with  those  people  whom  he  has  morally 
injured.  They  might  promise  to  forget  and  forgive 
if  he  manifested  penitence,  but  that  was  not  enough. 
Benedict  Arnold  was  not  brought  into  a  state  of  rec- 
onciliation with  his  country  after  his  act  of  treason 
by  simply  coming  back  and  saying  he  was  sorry  or 


108  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

even  reenlisting.  What  about  his  black  heart,  his 
evil  scheme  and  the  acts  of  taking  money  and  incen- 
diarism ?  There  was  a  time  when  he  loved  gold  more 
than  his  country.  Some  moral  transformation  must 
take  place  within  his  soul  which  will  make  this  sol- 
dier love  loyalty  to  his  country  and  hate  treason. 
ISTot  until  that  is  done  can  there  be  real  reconcilia- 
tion. And  just  so,  not  until  the  Benedict  Arnold  im- 
pulse within  each  man  is  changed  to  love  and  devo- 
tion to  the  good  of  humanity  is  humanity  reconciled 
to  man  or  God.  This  is  the  essential  reconciliation 
for  the  very  reason  that  in  no  other  is  there  any 
power  to  move  the  world  to  the  ideal  condition  of 
moral  goodness  which  Jesus  came  to  secure. 

The  reconciliation  which  Jesus  desires  to  achieve 
in  man  is  far  more  than  that  which  is  expressed  in 
the  experience  of  simply  coming  to  him  and  having 
him  say,  "Son,  your  sins  are  forgiven,  go  in  peace." 
This  sinning  against  our  fellows  demands  something 
more  than  that.  The  moral  order  of  the  world  would 
be  thrown  into  chaos  if  it  did  not.  Think  of  the 
effect  upon  others  which  our  sins  have  had.  Think 
of  the  fact  that  when  one  comes  to  God  and  seeks  for- 
giveness he  has  the  memory  of  all  his  wrong  before 
him.  Every  sin  against  another  looms  up  before  him 
as  a  double  affront.  It  is  a  wrong  against  God  and 
man.  Is  it  possible  for  any  individual  to  imagine  that 
reconciliation  consists  in  some  presto  change  manipu- 
lation, some  shuffle  of  theological  phrases,  some  repe- 
tition of  certain  beliefs,  or  some  announcement  from 
Heaven  that  all  is  well,  the  past  is  forgotten.  How 
about  the  young  man  who  ruins  the  life  of  a  girl, 
the  business  man  who  by  underhand  methods  destroys 
the  chance  of  another,  the  husband  who  lives  a  double 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT       109 

life  and  almost  mortally  injures  his  own  wife's  soul 
while  he  leads  another  woman  to  hell,  the  man  who 
not  only  sins  against  his  own  manhood  but  also  in- 
clines another  man  down  the  slimy  course  of  sin  with 
him  and  both  are  besmeared  from  head  to  foot  in  its 
smut  ?  Is  the  essential  reconciliation  secured  by 
their  statement  of  sorrow  and  their  promises  of  better 
things  ?  It  was  because  the  moral  instinct  of  Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson  as  told  in  Boswell's  life  of  Johnson, 
revolted  against  any  such  supposition,  that  he  was 
obliged  to  do  something  to  express  his  own  remorse 
and  shame  because  of  the  way  he  had  treated  his 
father.  One  day  he  left  the  city  of  London  and  re- 
turned to  Lichfield,  the  town  of  his  youth.  The 
people  in  the  house  where  he  was  staying  ventured 
not  to  ask  him  where  he  had  been  through  the  day. 
He,  however,  told  them  of  his  own  accord  in  the  fol- 
lowing langTiage. 

"Madame,  I  beg  your  pardon  for  the  abruptness  of  my  de- 
parture in  the  morning.  But  I  was  compelled  to  it  by  con- 
science. Fifteen  years  ago,  Madame,  on  this  day,  I  com- 
mitted a  breach  of  filial  piety.  My  father  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  attending  Uttexeter  Market,  and  opening  a  stall  there 
for  the  sale  of  books.  Confined  by  indisposition,  he  desired 
me  that  day  to  go  and  attend  the  stall  in  his  place.  My 
pride  prevented  me;  I  gave  my  father  a  refusal.  And  now 
today,  I  have  been  at  Uttexeter.  I  went  into  the  market  at 
the  time  of  business,  uncovered  my  head,  and  stood  with  it 
bare  for  an  hour  on  the  spot  where  my  father's  stall  used  to 
stand.  In  contrition,  I  stood,  and  I  hojie  the  penance  was 
expiatory." 

He  was  right.  Just  what  that  act  of  Dr.  Johnson's 
accomplished  in  the  adjustment  of  the  moral  order 
of  Heaven  and  earth,  we  do  not  know,  but  of  one 
thing  we  are  quite  certain  namely — there  was  no  true 
at-one-ment  between  Dr.  Johnson  and  his  old  father's 


110  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

spirit  wherever  he  was,  without  some  such  expres- 
sion of  shame  in  view  of  the  sin  which  he  had  com- 
mitted against  him.  It  manifested  his  desire  to  rec- 
tify the  wrong  in  the  only  way  he  could.  It  revealed 
his  willingness  to  do  anything  to  show  his  sorrow. 
It  proved  that  he  had  come  to  at-one-ment  with  the 
spirit  gone.  It  was,  we  hope,  the  sign  of  a  life 
now  given  in  love  to  others.  There  are  many  who 
sit  with  memory  in  the  dark  at  times  and  see  pic- 
tured before  them  the  sinful  deeds  which  they  have 
committed  to  the  injury  of  others,  who  have  passed 
on.  God  may  not  demand  that  they  do  the  spectacu- 
lar and  humiliating  thing  that  Dr.  Johnson  did,  but 
he  certainly  knows  that  there  is  no  real  reconciliation 
in  their  hearts  if  they  can  be  satisfied  simply  to  kneel 
and  quietly  ask  God  to  forgive,  with  little  thought 
of  those  whom  they  have  wronged.  The  evidence  of 
at-one-ment  is  not  there,  if  there  is  no  ang-uish  in 
soul  and  no  disposition  to  humiliate  one's  self  before 
the  memory  of  it  all. 

Further  than  this,  we  should  not  wait  until 
those  whom  we  have  wronged  in  life  have  passed  be- 
yond before  we  feel  this  sorrow  and  seek  to  make 
amends.  A  sin  against  the  community  should  be 
atoned  for  in  sorrow  and  righted  at  once.  It  cannot 
be  righted  in  Heaven  unless  it  is  on  earth.  No  one 
can  injure  another  member  of  the  human  family 
and  secure  the  essential  reconciliation  while  he  for- 
gets those  whom  he  has  sinned  against.  Some  one  has 
suggested  that  the  story  of  the  prodigal  son  is  far 
from  complete.  Is  it  possible  to  imagine  that  that 
boy  was  experiencing  the  true  reconciliation  to  the 
father  if  he  sat  there  at  the  feast  making  merry,  re- 
joicing in  the  fact  that  his  father  had  taken  him  back 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT      111 

and  at  the  same  time  caring  not  for  the  way  he 
treated  the  elder  brother  who  was  one  of  the  family, 
and  more  than  this  forgetting  the  lads  and  the  girls 
he  enticed  into  sin  by  his  unholy  influence  while  he 
was  a  prodigal  ?  Is  there  nothing  which  a  man  must 
do  in  relation  to  those  whom  he  has  sinned  against 
before  he  can  be  reconciled  to  God  ?  We  answer  that 
he  must  do  everything  in  his  power  to  rectify  the 
wrongs  of  his  life  with  those  whom  he  has  affected  so 
disastrously.  Jesus  offers  no  parlor  car  seat  to  him 
on  the  road  to  Heaven,  while  those  whom  he  led  into 
sin  ride  in  the  cattle  cars  to  hell.  There  is  no  recon- 
ciliation for  him  unless  he  gets  into  close  touch  with 
them  wherever  they  are,  if  it  is  possible,  and  pleads 
with  them  to  forgive  him  and  more  than  this  works 
hard  to  have  them  leave  the  life  they  are  living  and 
be  noble,  true  and  Christlike.  The  only  at-one-ment 
which  is  real  is  the  one  that  leads  a  person  to  go 
with  them  along  the  route  to  hell,  suffers  in  agony 
for  them  and  makes  the  honest  attempt  to  lead  them 
out  of  sin  to  righteousness.  Jesus  never  came  to 
offer  any  reconciliatio.i  to  man  that  did  not  include 
this.  He  did  not  come  ihat  the  sinful  man  who  has 
led  others  into  sin  might  ^ce'^ape  this,  he  camd  to 
point  out  that  there  is  no  reconclUation  for  any  man 
unless  he  does  do  this.  And  many  a  man  will  need 
to  spend  his  very  life  in  seeking  ihe  salvation  of 
others  whom  he  has  wronged,  he  will  be  obliged  to 
give  up  every  day  in  every  year  to  this.iask,  to  sv  ^rk 
with  might  and  soul,  to  agonize  eveu  to  sweating 
blood  and  perhaps  to  die  by  the  side  of  .ome  one  who 
is  still  going  on  to  ruin  because  of  hiii  sinful  influ- 
ence before  he  can  be  sure  he  is  reconciled  to  God. 
The  record  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  Mirk  Twain, 


112  PERSOISTAL  RELIGIOIT 

when  loaded  with  debts,  giving  their  last  years  in 
weariness  and  persistent  toil  to  pay  every  creditor 
who  had  suffered  in  their  financial  collapses,  is  a 
record  of  reconciliation,  the  kind  that  is  divine  and 
the  sort  that  is  essential.  This  is  what  Jesus  came  to 
secure.  There  is  no  other  kind  that  is  real.  By  do- 
ing this  one  works  out  his  own  reconciliation.  He 
who  claims  in  riotous  joy  in  some  religious  gathering 
that  he  has  been  reconciled  to  God  and  yet  makes  no 
serious  effort  to  right  the  wrongs  of  his  life  is  de- 
ceiving himself. 

RIGHTEOUSNESS    IS    RECONCILIATION 

Who  can  doubt  that  the  prophets  were  led  by  God's 
spirit  in  their  insistence  upon  righteousness  of  life  as 
the  test  of  religion  ?  The  demand  of  Jesus  for  right- 
eousness was  in  line  with  the  ideal  which  a  holy  God 
would  have  for  his  children.  The  reconciliation 
which  he  came  to  secure  was  that  which  would  fit 
into  that  ideal  of  righteousness  The  just  demand 
of  God  for  this  righteousness  defined  the  nature  of 
the  reconciliation  which 'was  necessary  to  secure  it. 
Ttere  is  a  truth  m'hae  satisfaction  theory  of  the 
,  atoixement.  It  is'  correct  that  God  must  be  satisfied 
in  tli^s  matter.  It  is  his  moral  order  which  must  be 
sustaiit^d  and  his  will  which  must  be  done.  That 
moral  orrirr  is  built  on  righteousness  and  that  will 
is  to  have  Hghteousness  done  in  the  world.  His  very 
nature  whi»h  is  holy  demands  this.  If  God  is  to 
forgive  ms^n'he  must  make  him  righteous.  This  is 
imperative  in  his  moral  order.  It  would  be  immoral 
to  reconcile  man  while  he  remains  wicked.  Our 
Heavenly  Father  is  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT      113 

man's  development  in  righteousness  of  life.  There 
can  be  no  pleasure  for  him,  no  joy  in  his  human 
family  unless  the  movement  of  mankind  is  tov^ard 
this  ideal  of  character.  As  long  as  sin  abounds,  as 
ruin  of  man's  moral  nature  is  evident,  as  wrecks  of 
human  life  line  the  beach  of  earth  experience,  as 
men  deal  with  each  other  selfishly  and  the  unity  of 
the  family  life  of  humanity  is  broken  by  moral  es- 
trangements, there  can  be  no  satisfaction  to  God. 
Therefore  the  only  atonement  which  is  adequate  is 
that  which  is  righteousness.  That  is,  reconciliation 
is  development  in  righteousness.  A  reconciliation 
declared  while  evil  holds  high  carnival,  and  blackens 
the  beauty  of  God's  creation,  is  mockery.  There  is 
no  such  thing.  Reconciliation  means  the  alinement 
of  man  to  the  righteous  ideals  of  Jesus,  the  experi- 
ence of  a  goodness  which  expresses  itself  in  truth, 
honesty,  justice  and  every  noble  trait  of  character  as 
men  deal  with  other  men  in  the  human  relationships 
of  life.  A  declaration  of  reconciliation  without  man 
being  righteous  would  be  hypocrisy.  To  say  a  man 
is  righteous  does  not  make  him.  God  can  only  de- 
clare him  so  as  he  is  so.  Therefore,  as  man  is  morally 
transformed  into  righteousness  of  heart  and  life  he 
is  reconciled.  This  is  the  essential  reconciliation,  or 
the  one  that  man  must  experience  if  God  is  to  be  sat- 
isfied and  his  will  accomplished  in  man.  And  our 
Heavenly  Father  cannot  be  satisfied  with  a  right- 
eousness which  is  superficial  or  unreal.  The  right- 
eousness which  is  the  ideal  of  the  reconciliation  which 
he,  because  of  his  own  nature  and  his  own  love  for 
and  interest  in  his  children  must  have,  is  nothing  less 
than  the  purest,  truest  and  largest  possible.  A  right- 
eousness certainly  equal  to  Plato's  conception  namely 


114  PEKSONAL  EELIGION 

that  which  was  stripped  of  all  rewards,  honors  and 
emoluments,  a  righteousness  which  is  righteous  even 
when  vice  is  accompanied  bj  ease,  riches,  fame,  pleas- 
ure and  world  success  and  virtue  is  accompanied  by 
poverty,  disdain,  persecution,  suffering  and  condem- 
nation. A  righteousness  which  expresses  itself  in 
a  life  of  unselfish  devotion  to  others,  which  spends 
the  powers  of  personality  in  the  service  of  the  com- 
mon good  and  which  finds  its  supreme  delight  in 
realizing  the  Kingdom  ideals  of  Jesus. 

REPENTANCE    IS    EECONCILIATION 

The  repeated  calls  of  John  and  Jesus  to  repent- 
ance must  have  had  some  tremendous  significance 
in  man's  religious  experience,  or  they  would  not 
have  made  them  so  repeatedly  insistent.  They  were 
issued  in  view  of  the  demand  for  righteousness.  If 
men  have  been  living  in  sin,  and  righteousness  is  the 
essence,  the  fundamental  genius  of  reconciliation, 
then  only  as  man  actually  turns  from  sin  to  holi- 
ness is  he  reconciled  to  God.  Repentance  is  the  sign 
of  atonement  begun.  This  verifies  the  sanity  of 
Jesus'  initial  appeal  to  men.  He  began  right. 
Knowing  that  there  could  be  no  real  reconciliation 
to  God  outside  of  righteous  principles  in  life  he 
called  men  everj^where  to  repent  or  turn  away  from 
sin.  We  should  remember  that  repentance  is  a  genu- 
ine movement  of  the  heart  and  life  from  sin  motives 
and  purposes  to  righteous  motives  and  purposes.  It 
is  more  than  sorrow  for  the  past,  it  is  a  whole  hearted 
right  about  face  from  one  thing  to  another.  To  se- 
cure this  in  humanity  is  to  accomplish  the  movement 
toward   atonement.      Therefore   Jesus   and   his   fol- 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT      115 

lowers  have  emphasized  it.  The  preacher  and  Chris- 
tian worker  of  today  are  to  make  repentance  the  great 
fundamental  plea  of  their  Gospel  ministry.  We 
should  put  it  first  as  Jesus  did.  We  are  to  make 
it  plain  that  there  is  absolutely  no  salvation  or  recon- 
ciliation apart  from  it.  The  church  needs  a  bap- 
tism of  conviction  regarding  the  essential  atonement. 
That  is  a  conviction  which  arises  out  of  a  conclusion 
regarding  God  and  man.  The  attitude  of  the  one  and 
the  need  of  the  other.  The  church  should  know  the 
meaning  of  the  essential  atonement  so  well  that  she 
will  be  able  to  discriminate  between  definitions  and 
spirit,  between  the  accomplished  and  that  which  is 
not,  and  between  the  essential  and  the  nonessential. 
Often  we  hear  some  one  state  that  a  certain  preacher 
has  either  publicly  or  privately  denied  the  atonement. 
He  is  denounced  or  discounted  as  a  heretic  or  un- 
safe leader  in  religious  life.  Upon  examination  of 
this  statement  we  find  that  it  often  signifies  simply 
that  the  person  has  questioned  another's  theory  of  the 
atonement.  And  oftentimes  the  man  who  is  accused 
of  denying  it  is  the  one  who  is  most  firmly  settled 
in  his  conclusions  regarding  the  fundamental  truth 
and  spirit  of  it.  He  has  simply  set  aside  one  the- 
ory after  another,  and  has  come  to  a  basic  idea  which 
is  essential  in  all.  He  is  far  from  denying  it.  He 
actually  afiirms  it.  He  joyously  perceives  its  deeper 
meaning  and  enthusiastically  announces  it.  And  in- 
variably, the  man  who  is  considered  guilty  of  denying 
the  atonement,  is  the  one  who  understands  the  essen- 
tial atonement  which  God  in  Christ  came  to  secure, 
namely  the  actual,  moral  and  spiritual  reconciliation 
of  man,  and  instead  of  forgetting  it,  emphasizes  it 
and  gives  his  very  life  to  make  it  real.     He  is  alert 


116  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

to  its  significance  every  moment,  he  is  alive  to  its 
principle,  he  is  in  prayer  daily  that  his  life  may 
be  used  to  bring  man  to  it  and  he  conceives  that  his 
life  task  is  none  other  than  to  lead  humanity  to  its 
consciousness.  Who  denies  the  atonement  but  the 
man  who  bickers  and  fights  about  definitions  of  God's 
side  of  it  and  fails  to  give  his  time,  talents  and  his 
very  soul  to  develop  in  humanity  about  him  the  ac- 
tual process  which  in  the  providence  of  the  Father 
will  surely  bring  it  about  ?  The  real  denier  of  the 
atonement  is  the  one  who  neglects  to  give  his  life  for 
others  to  secure  the  essential  harmonizing  of  man 
with  God  and  right.  The  real  heretic,  we  fear,  is 
the  man  who  so  limits  the  holy  love  of  the  Father, 
that  another  is  obliged  to  interpose  between  his  chil- 
dren and  him  to  secure  his  interest  in  them,  and  at- 
tempts to  force  a  theory  of  the  atonement  upon  man 
which  implies  a  doubt  of  the  Father's  eternal  dispo- 
sition of  solicitude  for  his  child  notwithstanding  that 
child's  sin  and  weakness  and  a  further  doubt  of  his 
ability  to  overcome  the  moral  catastrophe  which  sin 
has  brought  about  in  the  world,  within  his  own  heart 
and  nature.  Surely  that  man  cannot  truthfully  be 
styled  a  heretic  who  thinks  of  God  as  the  one  who  is 
able  and  willing  to  move  toward  man  in  love  not- 
withstanding all  that  sin  is  and  does,  who  divinely 
expresses  that  native  movement  of  his  soul  in  Jesus 
Christ's  life  and  death  and  who  passionately  assumes 
the  gi'eat  task  of  bringing  sinful  man  to  that  actual 
state  of  righteousness,  love  and  brotherhood  which  is 
the  ideal  of  his  mind,  the  desire  of  his  heart  and  the 
cry  of  his  own  nature  for  his  children.  We  believe 
there  is  a  Heavenly  sanction  of  that  faith  which  con- 
ceives of  God  thus,  which  recognizes  the  reconcilia- 


THE  ESSENTIAL  ATONEMENT      117 

tion  which  he  must  have  for  his  children  and  which 
expresses  itself  in  untiring  devotion  to  those  min- 
istries which  are  calculated  definitely  and  actually 
to  secure  in  men  the  moral  and  spiritual  at-one-ment 
which  is  so  evidently  essential  in  the  Kingdom  plan 
of  Jesus  our  Lord. 


CHAPTER    SIX 
THE    GOSPEL   MESSAGE 

IN"  Mr.  Chesterton's  delightful  play  "Magic,"  the 
young  girl  who  wanders  about  the  garden  dream- 
ing of  fairies  is  warned  by  the  stern  old  agnostic  doc- 
tor not  to"  forget  the  difference  between  the  things 
that  are  beautiful  and  the  things  that  are  there ;  "my 
red  lamp  is  not  beautiful  but  it  is  there."  The  girl 
looks  through  the  French  windows  and  sees  the  red 
glow  of  the  doctor's  light  shining  steadily  in  the 
dark — a  reminder  that  pain,  disease  and  death  are 
there  as  well  as  dreams  and  fairies  of  the  mind  and 
heart.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  we  view 
the  world  of  humanity  as  it  actually  is.  There  is 
much  in  it  that  is  beautiful  and  we  love  to  think  of 
it  and  gaze  upon  it,  but  there  is  also  much  that  is 
ugly  and  bad  and  we  do  not  like  to  think  of  it,  in 
fact  we  shudder  in  horror  when  we  are,  at  times, 
forced  to  look  upon  it.  But  whether  we  enjoy  it  or 
not,  the  fact  is  that  this  dark  side  of  human  life  is 
there.  It  is  useless  to  deny  it.  The  fairminded  one 
who  looks  at  life  squarely  and  with  clear  vision, 
knows  it  is  there.  It  is  only  the  blind  optimist,  or 
one  sided  philosopher,  who  refuses  to  see  what  really 
exists,  and  who  is  able  to  make  himself  think  that 
it  is  not  actual.  There  has  been  in  vogue  among 
some  a  belief  of  absolute  idealism  which  does  not  rec- 
ognize that  there  is  anything  offensive  in  life.     This 

118 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  119 

view  is,  that  within  the  absolute,  there  is  no  room 
for  real  differences  and  if  things  can  only  be  viewed 
from  the  eternal  standpoint,  disagreement  vanishes. 
That  is,  that  there  is  nothing  particularly  wrong  with 
the  world,  everything  is  in  beautiful  harmony  because 
everything  has  its  place  in  the  All.    But  there  is  an 
awakening  resentment  to  this  sort  of  sophistry  and 
this  resentment  is  because  the  facts  do  not  substan- 
tiate the  idealism  which  it  champions.     The  belief  in 
the  unity  of  the  universe  and  the  eternity  of  the 
good,   does  not  necessitate  the  view  of  life  which 
recognizes  no  evil  present  today.     Some  people  who 
feel  there  must  be  a  oneness  to  life  are  so  obsessed 
with  an  ultimate  ideal  that  they  refuse  to  see  the 
actual  condition  of  human  life  which,  though  mov- 
ing toward  the  ideal,  is  far  from  it.     Faith  in  God 
and  the  supremacy  of  truth  and  righteousness,  does 
not  demand  that  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the  facts  of 
life,  heart  rending  and  shameful  as  they  may  be. 
All  about  us,  right  before  us  in  individual  life  and 
active  collective  humanity,  there  are  clear  and  un- 
mistakable evidences  of  the  presence  of  the  unideal. 
Take  the  European  Crisis  which  is  on  just  now.    We 
may  believe  that  God   is  somehow  connected  with 
it,  that  it  was  inevitable,  that  all  nations  are  more 
or  less  involved  in  its  ethics,  that  there  are  times 
when  war  is  justifiable,  and  that  it  must  be  fought  to 
the  bitter  end  until  righteousness  triumphs.     Yet  is 
there  any  one  in  this  country  who  truly  believes  that 
it  is  compatible  with   a  true  Christianity,   that  it 
really  exhibits  the  spirit  and  ideals  of  the  ISTazarene, 
that  it  reveals  humanity  at  its  best,  that  it  was  be- 
g-un  in  justice  and  brotherhood  and  that  it  is  the  re- 
sult of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  ?    We  know  that 


120  PERSONAL  EELIGION 

it  is  evil,  that  it  is  the  fruit  of  treachery,  fear,  race 
hatred  and  human  greed,  backed  by  a  false  idealism 
of  life  and  that  it  would  never  have  occurred,  had 
Christian  nations  taken  Jesus'  ideal  of  life  seriously 
and  received  his  spirit  actually.  It  means  progress 
because  man  will  no  doubt  have  sense  enough  to 
learn  something  as  a  result  of  it,  but  no  deep  reason- 
ing is  able  to  gloss  over  the  fact  that  it  is  discord 
and  distrust  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  This 
accentuates  the  truth  that  right  by  the  side  of  the 
lovely  and  good  in  this  world,  are  unrighteousness 
and  unloveliness.  The  story  that  the  daily  news- 
papers tell  is  not  one  of  moral  grandeur.  Think  of 
the  record  of  anger,  divorce,  murder,  cruelty,  im- 
purity, avarice,  and  a  hundred  other  forms  of  the 
unideal  which  is  being  served  us  hourly.  When  can 
we  enjoy  a  happy  meal  together  without  being  con- 
scious of  the  poverty,  sorrow,  drunkenness,  de- 
bauchery, wretchedness  and  misery  about  us  ?  Think 
of  the  persistent  strife  among  the  classes  which  rep- 
resent labor  and  capital,  the  stampede  of  human  greed 
for  gold  that  crushes  out  human  lives  in  its  mad 
rush,  and  the  craze  for  the  superficial  and  temporary 
which  engulfs  millions  like  a  flood.  Before  such 
facts,  is  it  imreasonable  to  declare  that  the  world  is 
out  of  order  and  that  there  is  much  that  is  far  from 
the  ideal  ? 

And  when  this  is  traced  to  its  source  it  comes 
back  to  the  individual.  There  is  that  in  his  life 
which  is  fitly  described  only  by  that  homely  word 
"sin."  The  unideal  is  a  soft  word  for  the  same  fact. 
But  speaking  it  softly  as  we  may,  does  not  lessen  the 
awfulness  of  the  truth  that  it  is  sin  in  man  that 
causes  it  all.    We  do  not  need  to  discuss  original  sin ; 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  121 

the  actual  is  significant  enough  for  us.  Its  presence 
furnishes  us  with  a  problem  sufficient  to  tax  the  feel- 
ings and  ability  of  the  greatest  hearts  and  minds  of 
earth.  It  is  not  a  question  as  to  how  it  came.  The 
facts  are  that  man  reveals  motives  and  dispositions 
and  also  actually  does  that  to  his  fellowmen  which 
cannot  escape  the  judgment  of  the  moral  world  and 
which  justly  must  be  named  evil.  Sin  against  God 
and  sin  against  man,  it  is  sin  that  man  is  guilty  of; 
that  he  is  morally  responsible  for;  that  ruins  and 
wrecks  and  dams,  and  that  makes  this  world  a  hell. 
Sin  that  comes  from  the  wicked  mind  of  man.  We 
should  not  fail  to  recognize  that  there  are  sins  ration- 
ally chargeable  to  ignorance  and  immaturity,  but 
there  are  also  other  sins  which  cannot  be  excused  in 
any  way  whatsoever  and  which  only  merit  disgTist 
and  condemnation.  'No  philosophy  of  the  unity  of 
life  can  possibly  be  true  to  facts  and  lightly  pass  over 
them,  either  as  existing  or  as  being  justly  to  be  ac- 
counted for  by  human  beings  of  moral  capacity  in  a 
moral  world  order.  There  is  something  wrong  with 
the  world  because  there  is  something  wrong  with  in- 
dividual man.  Let  us  be  honest  before  that  which 
is  so  evidently  true.  Let  us  place  the  blame  where  it 
belongs.  Then  another  phase  of  this  dark  picture 
confronts  us,  namely  that  millions  of  individuals  are 
struggling  to  win  in  life  and  yet  are  harassed  con- 
tinuously by  the  sense  of  moral  weakness.  Some 
seem  always  to  have  been  deficient,  a  handicap 
handed  over  by  the  previous  generation ;  others  have 
brought  weakness  on  to  themselves  by  indulgence, 
while  still  others  struggle  on  never  reaching  that 
place  of  moral  triumph  which  they  long  for.  There 
is  much  that  goes  by  the  name  of  sin  which  after 


122  PERSOITAL  RELIGIOitT 

all  is  only  a  collapse  of  an  aspiring  soul  amid  cir- 
cumstances which  seem  fated  to  keep  it  down.  But 
the  fact  is  there  just  the  same  that  moral  victory  and 
life  success  are  not  attained  and  the  world  is  obliged 
to  witness  a  continual  panorama  of  character  tragedy. 
Then  as  one  carefully  examines  the  human  family 
in  its  life  activity  today,  he  finds  that  the  higher  val- 
ues of  life  are  not  appreciated  and  are  not  sought 
after;  that  religious  ideals  are  tabooed  by  hosts  of 
people;  and  that  boys  and  girls  even  do  not  give 
evidence  as  they  emerge  into  manhood  and  woman- 
hood that  they  naturally  choose  the  nobler  qualities 
of  soul  life.  They  seem  so  often  like  little  animals 
which  have  interest  only  in  that  which  will  secure 
food,  wearing  apparel,  leisure,  fun,  and  which  will 
satisfy  appetite  and  passion.  It  seems  to  take  a 
long  time  to  awaken  the  majority  of  them  to  the 
noblest  and  best  while  some  of  them  (and  recent 
statements  from  those  who  are  closely  associated  with 
young  people  seem  to  corroborate  it)  are  controlled 
by  the  baser  motives  and  passions  of  human  animal- 
ism. For  them  not  to  feel  guilty  of  the  sins  of  sel- 
fishness and  indulgence  and  uselessness  is  something 
to  deplore.  For  any  of  them  to  live  on  and  on  with 
no  high  ambitions,  with  no  sense  of  God,  is  to  be 
sorrowed  over,  even  if  Walt  Whitman  did  write  the 
following  lines: — 


"I  think  I  could  go  and  live  with  the  animals; 
I  stand  and  look  at  them  long  and  long, 
They  do  not  fret  and  whine  about  their  condition; 
They  do  not  lie  awake  at  night  and  weep  for  their  sins; 
They  do  not  make  me  sick  discussing  their  duty  to  God; 
Not  one  of  them  is  respectable  or  unhappy  over  the  whole 
earth." 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  123 

We  are  more  than  mere  animals  and  these  lines  are 
not  worthy  of  such  a  man  as  he.  The  man  who  lives 
like  an  animal  and  cares  not  about  moral  failure  hav- 
ing no  desire  for  things  noble  and  great,  is  worse 
than  an  animal,  because  he  is  so  much  more  than 
an  animal.  And  the  fact  that  so  many  human  be- 
ings, made  in  the  image  of  God,  having  a  distinc- 
tive moral  quality  and  capacity  in  their  natures,  do 
grovel  in  the  animal  excesses  of  life,  is  something 
that  we  more  than  deplore,  it  is  something  that  we 
are  ashamed  of.  Man  certainly  shows  up  a  dark 
side  and  reveals  a  condition  away  below  the  ideal. 
He  needs  much  if  he  is  ever  to  be  brought  to  God's 
ideal  for  him. 

With  the  evidence  of  need  before  us,  what  can 
be  done  for  humanity  is  the  question.  Intelligence 
is  a  factor  in  bringing  man  to  his  salvation,  we  are 
sure,  therefore  we  advocate  education  as  being  vital 
to  civilization.  Knowledge  was  salvation  to  the 
ancients.  But  we  are  convinced  that  the  acquiring 
of  knowledge  is  not  enough.  The  able  editor  of  one 
of  our  strongest  weeklies  wrote  recently  as  follows : — 

In  the  Autobiography  of  Dr.  Shaler,  a  college  ad- 
ministrator of  great  ability  who  had  a  rare  power 
of  winning  the  love  of  his  students,  these  significant 
words  are  found: 

"I  have  known  many  an  ignorant  sailor  or  backwoodsman 
who,  because  he  had  been  brought  into  sympathetic  contact 
with  the  primitive  qualities  of  his  kind,  was  humanely  a  better 
educated  man  than  those  who  pride  themselves  on  their  cul- 
ture. The  gravest  problem  of  civilization  is,  in  my  opinion, 
how  to  teach  human  quality  in  a  system  which  tends  ever 
more  and  more  to  hide  it." 

These  words  are  immensely  reinforced  by  the  con- 
ditions of  the  hour;  and  they  also  strikingly  inter- 


124  PEESONAL  EELIGION 

pret  those  conditions.  Many  people  are  asking  in 
despair :  If  men  of  the  highest  training  yield  to  the 
same  passions  and  antagonisms  to  which  ignorant 
men  yield,  how  is  society  ever  to  become  safe  and 
sane? 

Man  needs  something  more  than  cultnre.  Educa- 
tion and  intelligence,  good  as  they  are,  are  not  enough 
to  save  humanity.  Conscious  of  this,  the  challenge 
comes  to  the  Christian  church  and  pulpit  today. 
Have  we  a  message  which  is  vital  to  humanity's 
emancipation  ?  Have  we  any  truth  which  will  ac- 
tually give  to  man  what  he  needs  ?  If  we  have  not, 
then  of  what  use  is  Christianity  and  the  church  in 
the  world  ?  The  great  question  is  regarding  the  ef- 
fectiveness of  the  message  which  we  have  to  offer 
mankind.  We  need  not  concern  ourselves  primarily 
about  methods,  much  as  we  believe  in  them.  There 
are  many  good  Christian  people  today  who  are  busy 
with  methods  who  perhaps  have  forgotten  the  demand 
for  a  message.  The  pulpit  today  stands  in  need  of 
ascertaining  if  it  has  a  message  able  to  cope  with  the 
religious  and  moral  situation  in  the  world  and  then 
it  needs  to  be  sure  that  it  knows  what  that  message 
is.  Every  man  who  goes  out  from  a  seminary  should 
not  only  be  sure  of  his  method  but  should  be  abso- 
lutely certain  that  he  has  a  message  which  is  fitted 
to  do  the  work  which  he  expects  to  methodize.  Some 
we  fear  are  great  on  method  and  little  on  message. 
Each  should  be  sure  of  the  second,  first.  The  method 
is  important  but  the  message  is  more  so.  Therefore 
the  question  as  to  whether  we  have  one  or  not  is  a 
very  vital  inquiry.  Let  every  one  stop  and  answer 
it.  One  is  in  a  sorry  plight  fussing  about  methods 
with  no  message  to  give  to  man.     The  person  who 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  125 

meddles  with  methods  while  muddled  regarding  his 
message  is  very  unwise.  We  should  have  the  mes- 
sage clear  in  the  mind,  then  study  methods.  It  will 
save  much  extra  work. 

There  is  a  message  which  we  believe  is  suited  to 
every  need  of  mankind  and  that  is  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  It  has  come  from  the  God  of  all  hu- 
man beings  and  is  a  revelation  of  what  his  mind  has 
planned  and  his  heart  has  prompted  in  view  of  the 
condition  of  the  human  race.  It  has  within  it  the 
perfect  answer  to  man's  needs,  having  been  framed 
with  all  those  needs  in  mind  and  on  purpose  to  meet 
them.  It  is  the  message  of  a  Father  to  his  children. 
It  does  not  so  much  concern  what  he  demands  as 
what  man  must  have  for  his  own  good.  It  is  a  mes- 
sage of  great  depth  and  breadth.  It  reaches  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  soul,  and  it  falls  short  of  nothing  of 
which  a  human  life  is  capable.  Its  elements  are  in- 
serted to  satisfy  the  entire  range  and  possibilities  of 
growing  humanity.  It  is  a  message  that  reveals  no 
weak  points  and  no  foolish  demands.  It  is  really 
the  message  of  Jesus  himself.  It  is  his  religious  and 
ethical  announcement  to  the  world.  It  is  something 
about  him,  but  it  is  primarily  something  in  him  and 
of  him.  It  is  his  message  for  others,  having  been 
given  to  them  because  of  what  they  are,  and  may  be. 
It  is  emphatically  for  humanity  because  of  the  very 
condition  humanity  is  in.  And  the  happy  truth  is 
that  this  message  is  within  the  grasp  of  every 
preacher  and  Christian  worker  in  the  world  today. 
With  it  truly  perceived  and  spiritually  experienced, 
he  has  the  truth  which  may  be  delivered  to  himianity 
with  no  misgivings  whatsoever.  He  may  be  abso- 
lutely certain  that  he  has  that  which  man  must  have 


126  PERSONAL  EELIGION 

today  as  well  as  any  other  day.  It  needs  no  cor- 
rections. A  man  may  stand  with  its  contents  burst- 
ing from  his  soul  and  feel  all  through  his  most  sen- 
sitive consciousness,  that  the  truth  of  the  Eternal 
God  is  his.  He  may  look  into  the  dark  conditions  of 
humanity  about  him  and  declare  in  joy  as  one  after 
another  comes  before  him,  I  have  the  message  this 
one  and  that  one  and  every  other  one  must  have  to 
bo  saved.  I  have  the  Gospel  that  the  world  is  in 
perplexing  need  of.  It  is  good  news,  glad  tidings. 
A  message  of  optimism  and  hope.  A  message  fit  for 
angels  and  men  to  deliver.  God  pity  the  preacher 
who  has  once  had  it  and  lost  it  or  never  had  it.  It 
is  just  as  vital  to  life  today  as  ever.  The  genius  of 
it  does  not  change. 

We  talk  about  modernist  and  conservatist,  but 
there  should  be  no  alternative  here.  The  true  mod- 
ernist is  the  one  who  gets  into  the  heart  of  this  won- 
derful truth  of  the  "Gospel,"  this  "goodnews"  of 
God,  and  knows  its  essential  meaning  and  power. 
He  is  the  one  who  strips  it  of  all  needless  externali- 
ties and  realizes  its  heart.  He  is  the  one  who  con- 
serves its  vitalities.  He  discriminates  between  defi- 
nitions of  it  and  the  thing  itself.  He  is  passion- 
ately devoted  to  its  inner  meaning,  to  its  essential  sig- 
nificance. He  will  give  his  very  life  to  make  it  real. 
l^ot  because  he  wishes  to  differ  with  any  of  his  breth- 
ren, but  because  he  feels  in  his  imnost  being  that 
the  tinith  which  humanity  most  needs,  is  the  vital 
message  of  the  Gospel  and  not  its  form.  He  must 
conserve  its  life.  That  life  to  him  is  the  Gospel. 
Unless  humanity  has  that  it  is  doomed.  He  feels 
that  both  wings  of  theological  faith  must  find  the 
spiritual  heart  of  the  Gospel  or  else  have  no  message 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  127 

for  the  age.  The  only  conservatist  is  the  one  who 
conserves  the  divine  content  of  the  message  of  Jesus, 
not  the  man  who  grasps  with  tenacity  its  outer  forms 
and  fights  with  passionate  enthusiasm  to  hold  on  to 
its  definitions.  The  one  who  thus  loyally  and  sin- 
cerely battles,  may  find  in  his  hands  only  the  ex- 
ternal wrappings  of  it,  while  the  inner  essence,  that 
every  human  being  must  secure,  if  he  is  to  be  spirit- 
ually and  morally  saved,  is  not  perceived  or  realized 
at  all.  This  being  so,  he  has  no  vital  Gospel  mes- 
sage to  give  to  those  about  him.  They  come  in  need 
and  hunger,  watch  him  as  he  deftly  handles  the  Gos- 
pel truth  in  dogmatic  definitions,  and  struggles  to 
make  it  clear,  but  they  go  away  feeling  that  somehow 
they  did  not  find  what  they  needed  and  truly  desired. 
It  is  he  who  knows  the  heart  of  the  Gospel  who  can 
move  among  the  hungry  crowds  and  feed  them  with 
the  bread  of  life.  With  this  so  true,  we  are  led  to 
examine  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  ascertain  just 
what  its  essential  content  is. 

THE    GOSPEL    OF    THE    KINGDOM 

In  Matthew  4:23,  we  read  that  Jesus  went  through 
all  the  towns  of  Galilee  proclaiming  the  "Good  news" 
of  the  Kingdom,  or  the  reign  of  God.  We  have  here 
the  Gospel  in  ideal.  It  is  the  ideal  of  the  reign  of 
God  in  the  individual  human  heart.  This  implies 
a  religious  and  ethical  standard  of  life  for  each  one. 
Each  life  is  to  be  lived  purely  and  nobly.  Others 
who  had  gone  before  had  given  excellent  ideals  to 
man,  but  Jesus'  ideal  was  the  highest.  It  was  the 
"good  news"  that  man  as  an  individual  was  worthy 
of  this  ideal,  and  that  God  himself  had  proclaimed 


128  PERSoisrAL  religio:n" 

righteous  and  moral  greatness  as  the  only  suitable 
goal  of  his  individual  career.  This  is  a  Gospel  in 
itself.  It  was  also  the  ideal  of  the  reign  of  God 
in  righteousness,  love  and  peace  in  collective  human- 
ity on  the  earth.  Jesus  considered  this  an  impor- 
tant part  of  his  message.  He  constantly  referred 
to  it,  assured  the  people  there  was  a  condition  of  life 
among  men  to  look  forward  to,  and  sought  to  inspire 
everyone  with  the  desire  to  labor  toward  it.  Dark 
as  conditions  were,  unideal  as  human  life  was,  he 
had  come  to  announce  the  "glad  tidings"  of  a  divine 
ideal  among  men  and  to  bring  humanity  to  its  reali- 
zation. They  were  not  to  give  up  hope  entirely. 
Israel  could  yet  be  emancipated.  Humanity  could 
yet  come  to  its  own.  The  world  could  yet  be  made 
true  and  noble  and  righteous.  That  certainly  was  a 
message  of  joy  to  politically  disrupted  and  broken 
hearted  Israel,  to  the  few  aspiring  souls  in  Paganism 
and  to  the  superstitiously  religious  hordes  of  bar- 
barism. And  while  1900  years  have  gone  by  since 
then,  and  religious  and  ethical  advance  can  be  truth- 
fully chronicled,  yet  it  comes  as  "glad  tidings"  today 
for  we  have  not  yet  realized  its  happy  and  wonderful 
fulfilment.  It  is  a  gospel  ideal  we  should  ever  keep 
in  mind  and  ever  conscientiously  labor  toward.  The 
good  news  of  a  social  state  of  brotherhood  and  love 
must  never  be  lost  sight  of.  It  is  an  integral  part 
of  our  Gospel  message.  It  should  be  constantly  pro- 
claimed as  an  ideal.  We  should  be  ardent  and  de- 
voted preachers  of  this  Gospel.  The  Christianizing 
of  the  social  order  is  no  idle  dream.  It  is  the  actual 
ideal  of  Jesus.     Our  message  should  include  it. 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  129 

THE    GOSPEL    OF    THE    GEACE    OF    GOD 
The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Gospel  of  God. — Mark  1 :  15. 

It  was  born  in  him.  The  Gospel  of  God 
is  the  Gospel  of  his  grace.  It  sprang  forth  from 
that  quality  of  his  character  which  we  name  grace. 
This  word  grace  occurs  in  the  ISTew  Testament  some 
150  times  and  reveals  to  us  the  very  soul  of  the 
Gospel.  Paul  rightly  conceived  of  the  grace  of  God 
as  giving  birth  to  the  message  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"By  grace  are  ye  saved." 

"The  grace  of  God  which  bringcth  salvation  hath  appeared 
unto  men." 

"That  in  the  ages  to  come,  he  might  show  the  exceeding 
riclies  of  his  grace  in  his  kindness  toward  us  through  Jesus 
Christ." 

This  is  the  Gospel  as  a  divine  philosophy.  It  re- 
veals to  us  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  bom,  the  moral 
and  spiritual  principles  which  it  operates  in  con- 
formity to  and  the  gracious  nature  which  mothers 
and  sustains  its  perpetuity.  It  makes  plain  to  us 
the  fact  that  it  is  nothing  external  to  God  himself. 
It  announces  the  good  news  that  there  has  always 
been  in  the  father  nature,  the  character  and  spirit 
which  would  naturally  produce  the  message  which  is 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  not  wrung  out 
of  God  reluctantly  but  rather  was  produced  spon- 
taneously within  his  great  heart.  It  was  the  flower 
of  his  own  grace.  It  was  not  made  effective  in  him 
nor  secured  from  him  by  another.  All  the  prob- 
lems of  bringing  it  to  being  and  action,  if  there  were 
any,  were  solved  within  the  mind,  and  soul  and  by 
the  will  of  the  Father  himself.  The  Gospel  is  not 
a  message  that  some  one  was  able  to  turn  God's  atten- 


130  PERSONAL  RELIGIOIT 

tion  to  sinful  needy  man,  but  the  "good  news"  that 
his  own  heart  moved  toward  every  one  of  his  way- 
ward, stumbling,  frightened,  sinsick  and  even  rebel- 
lious children.  And  more  than  this,  all  that  the 
"good  news"  of  the  Gospel  implies  may  be  done  for 
man  religiously  and  in  every  other  way  was  made 
possible  and  arranged  for  in  the  nature  and  disposi- 
tion of  the  Eternal  Father  of  all  men.  The  philoso- 
phy of  the  Gospel  message  is  his.  ISTo  one  thought  it 
out  for  him,  no  one  was  inclined  to  it  more  than  he. 
It  is  all  his.  And  this  disposition  expressed  in  the 
Gospel  was  not  a  spasmodic  attitude  or  spirit,  but  an 
eternal  fact,  as  eternal  as  God  himself.  There  never 
was  a  time  when  God  was  not  gracious  toward  his 
children. 

This  timeless  disposition  of  God  toward  man  which 
the  Gospel  so  beautifully  portrays,  is  made  intelli- 
gent to  us  in  the  word  "grace."  It  is  the  Gospel  of 
God's  grace  and  should  always  be  thought  of  as  such. 
Grace  is  a  common  word  in  Christian  circles  but  it 
is  often  only  superficially  considered.  There  are  at 
least  two  basic  thoughts  concerning  God's  nature  and 
his  attitude  toward  men  because  of  it.  One  is  that 
he  is  holiness  and  everything  he  does  must  be  in  per- 
fect adjustment  to  that  holiness.  Whole  theologies 
have  been  written  from  this  standpoint.  Another  is 
that  he  is  love  and  all  that  he  plans  and  does  for  his 
children,  is  because  of  and  in  harmony  with  this 
love.  Whole  theologies  are  now  being  written  from 
this  view  point.  Which  is  correct  ?  We  have  reason 
to  believe  that  both  are  or  neither  wholly  is.  It  is 
the  correlation  of  the  two  which  expresses  the  truth. 
That  happy  adjustment  is  manifested  in  the  term 
"grace."     Grace  is  the  perfect  blending  of  the  two. 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  131 

Holiness  becomes  love  and  love  insists  upon  holiness. 
This  forbids  love  ever  acting  sentimentally  and  saves 
holiness  from  austerity.  Love  in  its  pity,  benevo- 
lence and  passion  to  help,  is  never  allowed  to  excuse 
sin  of  any  sort.  It  is  constantly  brought  up  before 
the  demand  for  righteousness  in  God's  nature.  A 
holiness  which  could  never  allow  love  to  imagine  that 
it  could  champion  anything  less  than  holiness,  and 
could  never  allow  its  object,  the  Child  of  God,  to 
think  that  he  was  in  the  love  of  God  if  his  heart 
was  not  yearning  for  and  his  life  tending  toward  that 
character  which  is  the  very  nature  of  the  Father. 
And  holiness,  in  its  insistence  upon  a  high  moral 
idealism,  and  recognizing  the  weaknesses  and  guilt 
of  God's  children,  is  constantly  being  tempered  by 
"that  spirit  which  refuses  to  let  the  holiness  of  the 
one,  and  the  moral  obliquity  of  the  other,  keep  the 
two  apart.  It  saves  holiness  in  God  from  that  au- 
gustness  and  loftiness  of  character  which  gives  no 
place  to  an  erring  child  and  saves  the  child  from 
fear  to  approach  his  Father  whom  he  recognizes  as 
love  as  well  as  holiness.  Grace  is  therefore  the 
Father's  bed  rock  nature  sublimely  adjusted  and  in 
action  for  man's  salvation.  It  is  not  a  weak  and 
indulgent  aspect  of  God,  but  an  attitude  toward  hu- 
manity which,  while  expressing  genuine  love,  mani- 
fests a  stainless  character  which  must  act  holily.  It 
is  a  holy  love  for  all  mankind.  In  that  holy  love  it 
plans  to  forgive  and  save  man.  It  is  really  about 
the  grandest  and  noblest  conception  of  God  and  his 
attitude  toward  his  children  that  can  be  thought  of 
and  championed.  Once  conceived  as  it  should  be, 
it  inspires  hope  and  life  in  mankind.  It  is  possible 
so  to  think  of  the  holiness  of  God  that  when  one  con- 


132  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

trasts  his  own  life  of  moral  failure  to  it,  the  divine 
stainlessness  of  it  produces  nothing  but  despair.  We 
fear  there  has  been  a  presentation  of  the  perfection 
of  God  and  his  unrelenting  attitude  toward  man  be- 
cause of  it,  which  has  caused  the  children  of  his  own 
family  to  flee  from  him,  even  when  they  were  sorry 
for  their  sins,  when  they  should  have  been  inclined 
toward  him  because  of  his  love.  To  hold  God  up 
as  an  alien  and  Holy  power,  an  exacting  Taskmaster, 
who  writes  his  laws  across  the  sky  and  shouts  them 
forth  in  the  thunders  of  Sinai  and  threatens  in  light- 
ning flashes  the  sure  retribution  of  his  justice,  only 
paralyzes  mankind  as  it  falls  below  the  divine  ideal 
and  acknowledges  the  truth  of  its  own  shortcomings 
and  wickedness.  There  is  nothing  inviting  in  this. 
It  never  draws  any  one  to  the  Father.  It  leaves 
men  to  fall  back  hopeless  into  the  oblivion  of  dark- 
ness caused  by  the  consciousness  of  their  moral  col- 
lapses and  evident  weaknesses.  But  how  different  is 
the  effect  of  the  conception  of  the  truth  revealed  in 
Grace.  The  truth  that  the  Father  himself,  notwith- 
standing his  holiness,  loves  us,  loves  every  one  of 
us,  and  possesses  a  nature  which  not  only  permits 
him  to  but  makes  it  natural  for  him  to  think  of  us, 
move  out  toward  us,  move  within  us,  seek  to  help  us 
and  graciously  forgive  and  care  for  us. 

We  should  remember  that  it  did  not  originate  in 
the  historical  Jesus  but  in  the  Father.  The  time- 
less nature  and  attitude  of  the  Father  is  revealed  in 
Jesus  Christ.  The  law  came  by  Moses  and  grace  and 
truth  by  Jesus  Christ.  Not  that  there  was  no  grace 
and  truth  in  the  world  previous  to  the  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  but  that  the  eternal  grace  of  God  was 
made  real  to  man  at  a  given  point  in  time,  in  him, 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  133 

in  a  divine  and  most  unique  manner.  "The  Grace  of 
God  appeared  unto  men."  Jesus  was  the  objectify- 
ing or  visualizing  of  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God. 
His  spirit  was  the  Father's  spirit.  His  life  and  min- 
istry were  the  expression  of  the  Father's  activity  for 
man.  The  Son  did  nothing  of  himself  apart  from 
the  Father.  His  life  and  death  revealed  the  Father. 
ISTothing  that  he  did  in  life  or  death  procured  God's 
grace.  Everything  that  he  did  manifested  that  grace. 
He  was  first,  last  and  always  the  embodiment  on; 
earth  of  the  gracious  plans  and  hopes  of  God  him- 
self. The  ''Glad  Tidings,"  in  the  announcement  of 
Jesus'  birth,  was  the  song  of  the  angels  who  came  to 
let  man  know  that  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God 
was  to  be  lived  out  in  human  life  for  all  human- 
kind, that  the  Father's  willingness  to  forgive  and  to 
save  man  from  his  sin  was  a  fact  and  that  everything 
was  and  always  had  been  ready  for  every  needy  child 
of  his  to  be  helped  and  directed  in  his  long  life  jour- 
ney upward.  We  are  never  to  think  of  Jesus  other 
than  one  who  uniquely  made  known  in  his  life  career 
the  spirit  and  life  of  the  Father.  In  him  we  see  how 
God  was  inclined  toward  man  and  sought  to  do  for 
him  what  he  most  needed.  What  more  could  man  ask 
of  his  Heavenly  Father  ?  This  is  the  message  con- 
cerning the  philosophy  of  the  Gospel  of  God's  grace 
which  we  may  be  sure  of  and  preach  with  power. 
How  it  thrills  the  soul  when  it  once  gets  hold  of  a 
man !  How  it  sings  itself  into  the  consciousness  of 
a  messenger  of  God  sent  forth  to  save  the  world ! 
How  it  satisfies  the  reason  and  the  conscience !  With 
what  enthusiasm  one  can  take  it  into  every  condi- 
tion of  human  life!  The  scholar  and  the  ignorant 
welcome  it.    The  religions  of  the  world  have  nothing 


134  PEESOKAL  RELIGION 

so  good.  Pagan  philosophy  goes  blind  before  its  daz- 
zling light.  It  makes  the  pulpit  at  once  rational,  con- 
scientious, and  effective.  Men  feel  that  the  God 
whom  it  portrays  is  worth  considering.  Their  souls 
refuse  to  have  any  other.  Such  a  God  is  worthy  of 
man's  faith,  love  and  life. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  SAVIOUR 

In  that  familiar  statement  of  Paul  written  to  the 
Roman  church  as  found  in  Romans  1 :  16  he  declares 
that  he  is  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every 
one  who  believes.  This  word  "power"  comes  from 
the  Greek  word  "dunamis"  from  which  we  get  our 
English  word  "dynamite."  We  have  here  then  a 
reference  to  the  Gospel  as  a  dynamic.  This  con- 
ception of  the  Gospel  has  a  very  vital  place  in  the 
message  of  the  Christian  church  today  as  in  every 
age.  After  all  of  what  use  is  a  Gospel  message, 
if  it  has  no  power  to  affect  human  life  in  such  a 
way  that  man  will  actually  be  moved  toward  God  ? 
Some  force  must  be  operative  in  human  life  to  save 
men  or  they  cannot  be  saved.  Sin  is  a  disease  and 
must  be  cured.  The  power  to  cure  it  is  what  man 
needs.  The  Gospel  as  an  ideal  does  affect  man  more 
or  less.  The  portrayal  of  the  high  moral  and  re- 
ligious idealism  which  Jesus  gave  the  world  in  his 
words  and  life  was  important  in  view  of  man's  salva- 
tion. How  could  men  be  expected  to  leave  a  low 
idealism  if  they  were  not  conscious  of  a  higher  ? 
How  could  men  ever  aspire  to  be  what  they  ought 
to  be  if  they  were  not  taught  what  God  wanted 
them  to  be?     The  painting  of  a  picture  of  true  hu- 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  135 

manity  in  actual  human  life  by  a  divine  artist  cer- 
tainly was  imperative.  The  good  news  that  such  a 
painting  may  be  seen,  is  a  genuine  Gospel.  Jesus' 
life  picture  of  an  individual  religious  life,  in  the 
foregi'ound  of  a  majestic  Kingdom-coloring,  with  all 
its  delicate  ethical  shades  of  life  relationships,  was 
indispensable  to  man's  salvation.  One  must  be  made 
to  think  in  the  terms  of  idealism  before  he  can  be 
brought  to  aspire.  The  awakening  of  the  moral  con- 
sciousness of  man  is  divinely  correlated  to  this  ideal- 
ism. Jesus  started  right.  His  Gospel  was  first  of 
all  one  of  ideal.  On  the  mind  he  paints  it.  The 
soul  receives  its  impression  and  man  not  only  sees 
but  feels  what  he  ought  to  be  and  what  the  world 
of  mankind  may  be.  The  Gospel  ideal  convicts  man 
of  his  need  because  it  pictures  what  his  Heavenly 
Father  reveals  he  may  be. 

At  first  thought  it  may  seem  to  be  true  that  a 
philosophy  of  the  Gospel  cannot  effect  any  man 
toward  his  salvation,  but  deeper  thought  may  see  in 
it  a  power  to  this  end.  We  are  sure  that  an  abstract 
philosophy  does  not,  yet  the  very  thought  that  God 
is  disposed  toward  sinful  man  as  he,  in  the  Gospel 
of  his  grace,  reveals  himself  to  be,  does  have  a  trans- 
forming influence  upon  him.  The  philosophy  of  the 
Gospel  is  not  given  to  us  only  in  the  abstract.  It  is 
singularly  concrete  in  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  With  the  heart  of  God  opened  up  to 
humanity  in  Jesus  and  his  graciousness  made  real 
to  all  who  contemplate  him,  with  the  Father's  holy 
character  and  spirit  of  love  divinely  embodied  in  the 
Son  and  all  of  this  over  against  the  low  moral  idealism 
and  indifference  and  waywardness  of  his  children, 
the  effect  upon  man,  as  he  studies  Jesus,  realizes  his 


136  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

ministry  and  sacrifice  even  to  death  for  others,  is  to 
see  his  sin  as  he  never  saw  it  before,  and  to  awaken 
him  to  hate  it,  forsake  it  and  turn  to  God  for  pardon 
and  help.  Therefore  the  objectifying  of  the  Gospel 
of  God's  grace  in  Jesus  Christ  does  move  man  toward 
his  salvation  and  the  Father's  ideal  for  him.  The 
realization  of  the  Gospel  as  a  philosophy  is  often- 
times potent  to  stop  man  in  his  sin  and  to  start  him 
in  the  right  direction.  When  Jesus  has  been  held 
up  to  men  as  the  manifestation  of  God's  love,  aa 
his  noble  life  has  been  made  real  to  humanity  and 
as  his  suffering  and  death  have  been  dwelt  upon  to 
show  the  extremity  to  which  he  was  willing  to  go  to 
help  save  others,  and  all  of  this  has  portrayed  the 
Father's  disposition  and  desire  to  make  known  to 
man  his  graciousness,  men  have  been  deeply  moved 
as  by  no  other  appeal.  From  all  over  this  world 
the  testimony  comes  that  mankind  has  responded  to 
the  idealism  of  the  Father,  that  men  have  been 
brought  to  penitence  on  account  of  their  sins  and 
have  actually  been  turned  away  from  them  to  live  true 
lives.  Thus  we  can  state  in  very  truth  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  philosophy  of  the  Gospel  is  effec- 
tive to  move  man  toward  his  salvation.  The  objecti- 
fying of  the  Gospel  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  was 
needed.    This  is  why  he  came. 

But  the  picturing  of  an  ideal  or  the  objectifying 
of  a  philosophy  is  no  guarantee  of  man's  salvation. 
His  great  need  is  for  some  spiritual  and  moral  power 
to  help  him  in  the  struggle  of  life.  It  is  just  this 
that  God  provides  in  the  Gospel  in  view  of  his  ideal 
for  man  and  in  harmony  with  his  philosophy  of 
grace.  Realizing  that  his  salvation  ideal  for  his 
children  is  a  character  of  holiness  and  a  spirit  of 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  137 

love  in  life,  and  that  humanity  is  saved  only  as  it 
comes  as  a  whole  to  this  ideal,  he  provides  for  and 
makes  real  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  the  power  which 
will  enable  man  to  overcome  sin  and  progress  toward 
the  Father's  ideal  for  him.  The  ideal  necessitates 
this.  Man's  need  demands  this.  A  Gospel  message 
without  this,  would  not  be  "glad  tidings"  at  all.  It 
would  be  but  to  taunt  man,  to  place  before  him  an 
ideal  and  objectify  simply  a  disposition  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  for  him.  God  could  not  and  would  not 
do  it.  If  the  Gospel  stopped  there,  there  would  be 
no  adequate  message  for  man  today.  Calling  to  man 
to  see  an  ideal  and  to  behold  God's  grace  in  the  life 
of  Jesus,  with  no  power  to  enable  man  to  respond 
successfully,  would  be  but  mockery.  We  would  shut 
up  our  churches  and  quit  preaching  and  laboring. 
The  task  would  be  hopeless..  But  the  Gospel  is  not 
thus  limited.  Every  possible  exigency  has  been  met. 
The  Gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
every  one  who  believes.  That  is  to  all  who  vitally 
connect  themselves  to  it  by  faith.  Jesus  objectified 
not  only  the  ideal  and  the  philosophy  but  also  this 
very  force.  He  lived  out  the  ideal  in  the  actual, 
human  arena  that  we  are  living  in.  He  had  the  same 
human  nature  and  met  the  same  temptations  and 
lived  in  the  same  environment.  There  was  nothing 
uncanny  or  unreal  about  his  life  on  earth.  If  it  had 
been  staged  totally  different  from  our  life  there 
would  have  been  no  vital  connection  between  it  and 
ours  and  what  he  did  would  have  given  us  no  hope. 
This  is  the  foundation  fact  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Jesus  lived  as  he  did  because  he  had  the 
same  moral  and  spiritual  power  we  may  have.  This 
is  the  truth  which  gives  man  hope  today. 


138  PEESOIsTAL  EELIGIO¥ 

This  force  which  operates  unto  the  salvation  of 
humanity  is  the  power  of  the  living  God.  The  Gos- 
pel is  not  simply  an  announcement  that  we  have  the 
ideal  and  philosophy  and  power  pictured  in  Jesus. 
It  is  the  fact  that  in  Jesus,  it  was  in  humanity,  and 
that  furnishes  us  with  a  message  to  men  today.  If 
he  possessed  it  only  because  he  was  so  unique,  or  if 
it  was  characteristic  of  his  age  only,  then  we  would 
be  hopeless.  It  is  because  the  power  of  the  eternal, 
living,  immanent  God  was  in  Jesus  as  a  human 
being  that  we  have  the  surety  today  of  such  a  force 
in  our  lives.  The  Gospel  is  the  good  news  that  this 
same  living  God  is  near  us,  is  verily  in  us,  as  we 
by  faith  and  will  become  conscious  of  him.  He  is 
able  to  gTant  us  daily  the  power  we  need  to  be  saved 
out  of  fear  and  worry,  hatred  and  malice,  and  sin 
of  all  description  into  that  life  of  love  and  moral 
nobility  which  is  Jesus'  ideal  for  us.  Salvation  is 
secured  by  the  reception  into  our  lives  of  the  spiritual 
forces  of  God  himself.  This  is  not  difficult  for  con- 
servatist  or  modernist  to  appreciate.  Mr.  McDowell, 
in  his  "Evolution  and  the  Atonement"  finds  what 
seems  to  him  to  be  a  serious  problem  concerning 
man's  hope  of  salvation  from  sin.  He  writes  that 
the  only  hope  lies  either  in  the  upspringing  of  a  new 
vital  impulse  or  else  a  freeing  of  man  from  the  con- 
sequences of  his  own  wrong  acts.  He  dismisses  the 
first  as  an  interruption  of  the  whole  evolutionary 
process.  His  trouble  being  that  man's  rescue  comes 
from  without.  But  why  is  this  necessarily  true? 
Why  not  conceive  of  God's  power  enveloping  man, 
in  him  to  a  certain  extent  but  larger  and  more 
powerful  than  he.  And  available  for  him  as  he  con- 
sciously appropriates  it  to  himself  and  gives  it  free 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  139 

course  within  his  own  personality  to  work  out  his 
salvation  ?  This  does  not  abrogate  the  evident  truth 
of  spiritual  evolution  in  the  world.  The  life  of  God, 
great  as  it  is,  moves  in  and  through  humanity  to 
man's  salvation.  This  is  the  force  that  saves  men. 
The  fact  that  all  men  may  have  it  is  the  good  news 
of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

We  are  to  be  assured  that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  makes  known  to  us  the  spiritual  and  moral 
power  of  the  universe  for  our  lives.  It  is  this  force 
that  operates  in  our  deepest  nature  to  counteract  evil, 
to  issue  in  the  experience  of  victory  over  all  sinful 
tendencies  and  to  develop  us  in  the  graces  of  Christ- 
likeness  which  are  indispensable  to  salvation.  It  is 
powerful  enough  to  help  every  member  of  the  human 
family. 

In  a  poor  district  in  Aberdeen  where  open-air 
preaching  is  common,  a  minister  who  had  only  a 
human  Saviour  to  preach  started  to  give  this  Gospel 
to  the  people.  "After  a  time  or  two,"  as  Dr.  Tlorton 
tells  us  in  "My  Belief,"  "they  told  him  that  if  that 
was  all  he  had  to  tell  them,  it  was  no  use  of  his  com- 
ing. 'Your  rope,'  said  one  'fallen  woman'  standing 
by,  'is  nae  lang  eneuch  for  me.'  " 

It  is  our  privilege  to  believe  and  know  that  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  long  enough  to  reach  every 
human  need.  And  more  than  this  it  is  able  to  put 
every  living  human  being  in  touch  with  the  spiritual 
forces  of  the  universe  or  God  himself,  which  will 
give  man  the  necessary  power  to  grow  in  the  spirit 
and  into  the  character  which  have  been  made  the 
goal  of  his  moral  and  spiritual  life.  The  Gospel 
is  thus  sufficient  to  repress  and  eliriiinate  evil,  to 
stimulate  every  latent  talent  into  activity,  to  develop 


140  PERSOI^AL  EELIGION 

every  hidden  potentiality  and  to  add  to  his  character 
those  positive  qualities  which  are  so  essential  to 
Christlikeness.  And  still  more,  this  Gospel  message 
is  the  announcement  that  there  is  a  force  at  hand 
which  can  bring  society  into  an  experience  of  right- 
eousness, love  and  brotherhood.  The  power  of  God 
is  equal  to  the  apparently  Utopian  ideal  of  Jesus 
for  humanity.  The  first  does  not  outreach  the  sec- 
ond. Following  right  behind  the  ideal  of  the  Gospel 
is  the  message  that  what  ought  to  be,  may  be,  that 
what  God  desires  done,  can  be  done.  There  is  no 
suggestion  of  perfection  of  ideal  and  imperfection, 
of  power  or  length  of  vision  and  shortage  of  force. 
God  the  idealist  for  his  human  family  is  with  each 
and  all  to  reach  that  ideal  in  human  life.  His  laws 
are  framed  for  this  and  his  forces  are  in  operation 
to  secure  this.  Every  command  of  the  living  God 
to  be  and  do  is  a  request  to  call  upon  him  for  power 
with  which  to  be  and  do.  Think  what  this  means  in 
society.  We  are  to  believe  that  man  can  see  the  right, 
that  society  can  respond,  that  evil  can  be  put  down, 
that  righteousness  and  love  can  occupy  the  throne, 
that  God  is  sufficient  to  help  his  children  onward 
and  upward.  This  is  the  Gospel  that  Jesus  brought. 
With  such  a  message  as  this  the  preacher  and  worker 
may  stand  before  the  whole  world  unashamed  as  was 
Paul  of  his  Gospel.  We  have  the  same  eternal  truth 
today.  We  may  stand  in  slumdum,  in  the  market 
place,  in  the  legislative  chambers,  the  college  halls, 
anywhere  and  everywhere  and  declare  this  glorious 
message  with  absolutely  no  question  of  its  rationality 
or  ability.  It  is  the  truth  of  God's  eternal  holy  love 
and  power.  It  is  the  only  message  that  will  save 
man  from  individual  sin  and  nations  from  barbaric 


THE  GOSPEL  MESSAGE  141 

conflict.  There  are  no  substitutes  for  it.  Shall  we 
not  preach  it  in  its  essence,  in  its  widest  interpre- 
tation and  in  its  fullest  hope?  To  the  world  shall 
we  go  with  such  a  Gospel.  Shall  we  call  every  one 
to  have  faith  in  the  Jesus  of  this  Gospel,  to  receive 
his  spirit  and  give  the  life  to  his  service  ? 

A  further  truth  should  be  added  which  is  that  the 
message  of  Jesus  covers  the  needs  of  the  physical 
body  to  a  degree  not  realized  by  many.  His  mes- 
sage was  preeminently  spiritual  and  the  realm  of  the 
physical  was  only  secondary,  yet  while  he  was  on 
earth  he  exercised  his  divine  power  in  cooperation 
with  the  eternal  laws  of  God  to  effect  the  himian 
body  for  health.  While  there  is  great  danger  in 
advocating  anything  along  this  line  as  possible  today, 
for  it  opens  the  door  to  all  sorts  of  vagary  and  fanati- 
cism, yet  we  believe  that  Jesus  would  have  us  not 
only  recogTiize  the  fact  that  there  are  mental  and 
spiritual  laws  which  cooperate  with  the  physical  in 
securing  to  man  physical  strength  and  health,  but 
that  he  would  call  all  mankind  to  know  these  laws, 
and  to  couple  up  with  the  psychic  forces  of  the  uni- 
verse in  order  that  he  may  be  benefited  in  body  and 
mind.  Level-headedness  is  greatly  needed  here,  but 
we  should  realize  that  there  is  something  basic  in  all 
the  successful  mental  and  spiritual  systems  of  heal- 
ing which  may  be  traced  to  fundamental  laws  of 
God's  universe.  These  laws  and  forces  were  made 
and  set  in  operation  for  man  and  are  for  us  today. 
Sound  physical  constitutions  are  valuable  potencies 
in  moral  and  spiritual  kingdom  progress.  It  is  "Good 
News"  of  a  divine  sort  to  be  able  to  tell  nervous, 
worn-out,  worried,  fearful,  despondent  and  sick  peo- 
ple, that  they  may  expect  all  the  laws  and  powers 


142  PEESONAL  EELIGION 

of  God,  physical,  mental  and  spiritual,  to  operate 
when  the  scientific  physician  is  called,  and  that  the 
prayer  of  faith  or  personal  cooperation  with  and 
realization  of  those  laws  and  forces,  is  not  only  pos- 
sible but  effective  to  the  securing  of  health.  And  fur- 
ther, when  one  realizes  that  85  percent  of  the  diseases 
of  mankind  are  either  functional  or  imaginary,  it 
may  be  safely  assumed  that  mental  and  spiritual 
attitudes  do  determine  something,  that  there  is  a  wide 
field  for  their  operation,  and  there  are  times 
when  the  physician  can  truthfully  state,  "I  was  not 
needed  except  to  help  them  mentally  and  spiritually." 
Without  stimulating  undue  credulity  and  without 
advocating  any  systems  of  oriental  philosophy  in  con- 
nection with  bodily  healing,  we  may  reasonably  as- 
sert that  Jesus'  Gospel  message  does  include  much 
for  human  kind  in  the  realm  of  the  physical.  An 
excellent  reading  course  on  this  phase  of  our  sub- 
ject would  be  as  follows: 

"The  Law  of  Mental  Medicine,"  by  Hudson. 

"The  Physiology  of  Faith  and  Fear,"  by  Sadler. 

"The  Life   Power  and  How  to  Use  It,"  by   Elizabeth  Townc. 

"Mind,  Religion  and  Health,"  by  MacDonald. 

"Mind  Power,"  by  Atkinson. 

"Christology,"  by  O.  C.   Sabin. 


CHAPTER   SEVEN 
THE  KELIGIO:?^  OF  THE  CHILD 

OJSTE  day  not  long  ago  upon  returning  to  my 
house  in  the  late  afternoon,  I  noticed  a  small 
child  of  some  two  years  of  age,  toddling  toward  me 
on  the  sidewalk.  The  woman  attendant  was  safely 
guarding  the  little  one  from  any  danger  while  he 
rambled  onward.  As  I  came  to  him,  he  stopped  and 
looked  up  into  my  face.  I  stopped  also  and  gazed 
into  his.  The  symmetry  and  beauty  of  his  features 
caused  me  to  say,  as  admiration  and  love  burst  forth 
from  my  soul,  ''Oh  you  little  sweetheart."  I  passed 
on  with  the  vision  of  that  face  before  me.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  I  had  never  seen  anything  more  wonder- 
ful or  beautiful  in  all  my  life.  Such  a  perfect  little 
form,  such  great  eyes,  such  cheeks  pinked  by  the 
bracing  air,  such  curls  of  silken  hair,  and  such  an 
expression  of  mingled  joy,  inquiry  and  confidence  on 
his  upturned  face.  As  I  journeyed  on,  it  seemed 
that  I  was  a  visitor  to  earth  and  did  not  know  the 
genius  of  life  on  this  planet  but  was  inquiring  about 
it.  I  looked  toward  Heaven  and  asked,  "What  was 
that  beautiful  creature  ?"  God  answered,  "That  was 
a  child."  "Just  a  human  child.  Made  of  the  same 
material  that  all  children  are  made  of."  I  walked 
on  lost  in  revery.  The  world  seems  new  to  me  and 
in  the  very  centre  of  it  was  the  child.  I  was  back 
in  the  first  century  and  was  standing  with  Jesus  as 

143 


144  PEKSONAL  EELIGION 

he  placed  the  child  in  the  midst.  In  my  mind,  I 
traveled  all  over  this  earth  and  visited  the  great  art 
galleries  and  wonders  of  nature  but  there  was  noth- 
ing so  exquisitely  beautiful  and  divinely  wonderful 
as  this  child.  It  seemed  as  if  some  artist  were  out- 
lining, in  the  colors  that  never  wear  out,  the  pic- 
ture of  the  human  babe.  There  was  nothing  that 
could  take  his  place.  Everything  receded  before  him. 
But  this  was  not  all.  The  Master  was  talking  to 
me.  He  who  knew  human  life  as  no  one  else  did, 
was  telling  me  the  secrets  of  the  soul,  heart,  mind 
and  being  of  that  child.  How  he  did  open  up  to  me 
the  genius  of  his  nature,  his  powers,  his  possibilities 
and  the  life  environment  on  earth  into  which  he  had 
been  placed  by  a  loving  Heavenly  Father.  It  was  a 
revelation  to  me.  The  vision  has  never  left  me.  To- 
day the  church  is  recognizing  the  child's  right  to  the 
central  place  in  her  Christian  thought  and  labors. 
Never  was  the  world  so  thoroughly  aroused  to  his 
importance.  The  church  believes  that  she  should 
make  provision  for  his  protection  and  full  rounded 
development.  She  is  interested  in  every  phase  of 
his  life  problem  and  promise.  His  religious  develop- 
ment is  so  thoroughly  appreciated,  that  her  entire 
ecclesiastical  machinery  is  being  reconstructed  to  take 
care  of  it.  Books  by  the  scores  concerning  child 
culture,  have  been  and  are  being  written.  This  is  all 
because  the  church  believes  that  one  of  the  great 
tasks  which  confronts  us  is  that  of  religiously  devel- 
oping this  same  child  who  is  in  our  midst.  Pastors, 
evangelists.  Christian  workers  of  all  sorts,  are  thus 
impressed,  knowing  that  the  future  of  Christianity 
in  this  world  depends  upon  its  power  with  the  young. 
Time  and  time  again,  I  hear  such  expressions  as 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CHILD     145 

these,  "the  best  evangelism  and  the  best  Christian 
work  are  with  the  children."  "The  church  must 
focus  her  attention  more  upon  them."  "Rescue  work 
is  not  the  normal  service  for  Christ.  He  intended 
that  we  should  win  the  child  and  hold  him,  making 
rescue  work  largely  superfluous."  With  such  senti- 
ments we  are  in  happiest  accord.  This  being  true, 
namely,  that  our  work  should  be  done  largely  with 
the  children,  developing  them  upward  to  Christian 
manhood  and  womanhood  without  any  break,  it  ap- 
pears necessary  to  have  a  right  view  of  the  religion 
of  the  child.  Christian  workers  should  understand 
him  as  Jesus  did,  should  know  what  it  is  for  him 
to  be  religious  and  should  realize  just  what  we  are 
expected  as  Christian  workers  to  do  to  develop  him 
in  this  realm.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  write 
out  what  the  Master  seemed  truly  to  tell  me  on  that 
walk  with  him  after  seeing  that  beautiful  child. 

There  is  no  question  about  the  surpassing  beauty 
of  some  children  and  the  wonder  of  all,  but  what 
is  the  child  ?  How  shall  we  think  of  him  ?  In  a 
moment  of  rapture,  one  declares  that  he  is  an  "angel" 
and  shortly  some  one  in  a  passion  states  that  he  is  a 
little  "devil."  The  mother  fondly  caresses  her  baby 
and  coos  to  him  and  presses  the  cheek  to  hers  while 
she  says,  "Sweetest  thing  in  all  the  world,"  but  it 
may  not  be  very  many  months  before  she  turns  that 
baby  on  her  knee  and  spanks  him  good  and  hard 
while  she  cries  out,  "You  naughty,  awful  child." 
The  beautiful  baby  now  seems  to  be  the  incorrigible 
youngster.  The  angel  has  gone  and  the  little  devil 
has  come  in  his  place.  Perhaps  most  parents  would 
state  that  the  child  is  a  mixture  of  both  angel  and 
devil.     Sometimes  one  is  uppermost  and  sometimes 


146  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

the  other  comes  to  the  front.  The  fact  is  however 
that  the  child  is  neither  devil  nor  angel.  Parents 
are  not  giving  birth  to  either  of  the  two.  The  child 
is  simply  and  only  a  human  being.  And  he  is  a 
human  being  because  God  planned  his  life  thus.  He 
came  into  being  because  the  Eternal  Spirit  willed 
that  human  life  should  take  that  form.  His  excel- 
lencies or  weaknesses  are  not  to  be  attributed  to 
anything  outside  of  humanity.  That  which  pleases 
us  or  does  not,  is  not  because  it  is  either  angelic  or 
devilish.  These  are  simply  terms  which  we  have  be- 
come accustomed  to  use  to  describe  certain  charac- 
teristics of  humanity.  That  which  we  see  in  the 
humanity  of  the  child  is  that  which  belongs  to  hu- 
manity because  of  what  it  has  been,  what  it  is,  and 
what  it  is  subjected  to.  Our  study  then  is  the  study 
of  a  human  being  himself. 

The  Master  set  the  child  in  the  midst  and  pro- 
ceeded to  analyze  him  for  me.  He  told  me  that  the 
world  should  think  of  him  as  a  child  of  God  (poten- 
tially at  least),  that  he  has  something  of  the  Eternal 
Father  in  him,  that  he  was  given  human  form  be- 
cause that  was  the  Father's  wish  in  wisdom  and  love 
for  him,  that  he  had  instincts  and  tendencies  charac- 
teristic of  his  human  life,  that  he  had  a  spiritual 
and  moral  nature,  and  that  he  had  a  religious  impulse 
with  capacity  for  a  real  religious  experience.  "All 
of  this,"  said  he,  "is  in  the  child  in  germ."  He 
wanted  me  to  be  sure  and  understand  him  for  "of 
such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  "Make  no  mis- 
takes," he  continued,  "the  study  of  the  child  is  the 
examination  of  the  genius  of  human  life,  my  King- 
dom is  to  be  made  up  out  of  human  life  and  the 
child  has  within  him  all  the  possibilities  of  it."    No 


THE  KELIGION  OF  THE  CHILD     147 

Kingdom  idealist  or  Kingdom  worker  can  leave  the 
child  out  of  his  thought  and  heart,  for  he  is  that 
Kingdom  potentially.  This  does  not  imply  that  the 
Master  looked  upon  the  child  as  spiritually  and  mor- 
ally perfect  as  some  noble  men  have  implied.  Kous- 
seau  regarded  children  as  coming  perfect  from  the 
Creator's  hand.  There  is  a  great  difference  between 
the  perfection  of  ignorance  and  innocence  and  that 
of  moral  and  spiritual  development.  Jesus  saw  in 
the  child  perfection  in  germ  but  not  in  actuality.  He 
could  have  stated  with  Wordsworth, 

"Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting; 
The  soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star, 
Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting, 
And  Cometh  from.  afar. 
Nor  in  entire  forgetfulness 
And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory,  do  we  come, 
From  God  who  is  our  liome; 
Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy." 

But  this  does  not  lead  us  to  imagine  that  there  would 
be  no  signs  of  imperfection  as  the  child  moved  toward 
his  divine  goal.  He  told  me  that  we  should  make  an 
honest  study  of  the  child,  and  should  be  freed  from 
all  preconceived  notions  and  ideas.  He  commended 
to  me  the  work  of  scientific  observation,  experiment 
and  induction,  that  was  going  on  among  able  religion- 
ists and  psychologists. 

As  we  examine  the  child's  human  nature,  and 
that  is  the  sum  of  the  endowments  with  which  the 
child  is  born,  what  do  we  find  ?  The  ablest  students 
of  the  child  state  that  we  do  not  find  in  the  infant's 
mental  birth  inheritance,  any  innate  ideas.  There  is 
no  complex  furniture  like  this  in  his  mind  at  that 
time.     The  infant's  experience  begins  in  raw  sensa- 


148  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

tions,  feelings  of  pleasure  and  pain  and  the  motor 
adaptations  to  which  these  lead.  Then  we  find  the 
congenital  instincts  and  appetites.  Instincts  being 
automatic,  it  is  obvious  that  no  moral  attribute, 
such  as  "good"  or  "bad"  can  at  least  be  applied  to 
the  child  for  possessing  them.  And  as  they  are 
necessary  to  life  they  are  not  alien  to  human  nature 
as  the  Father  planned  it.  And  an  examination  of 
the  appetites  which  the  human  child  is  heir  to,  does 
not  reveal  any  particular  taint.  Their  presence  or 
their  intensity  cannot  necessarily  be  regarded  as  a 
derangement  of  hmnan  nature.  They  are  simply 
organic  needs  calling  for  satisfaction.  Hunger  and 
thirst  are  essential  to  life.  Something  for  the  hands 
to  grasp  and  some  path  for  the  feet  to  find,  is  natural 
and  right.  Even  the  sexual  appetite  which  causes 
so  much  sin  in  later  life,  has  been  placed  by  the 
Creator  in  the  child  as  a  germ,  that  his  plan  of  pro- 
creation may  be  carried  out.  There  is  nothing  wrong 
with  the  appetites.  There  are  other  tendencies  in 
human  nature  which  have  become  the  child's  inherit- 
ance through  its  link  with  the  animal,  but  we  cannot 
refer  to  these  as  qualities  which  are  in  themselves 
inherently  evil.  If  God  willed  that  life  should  be 
developed  through  the  animal,  with  its  instincts  and 
appetites,  who  is  there  to  say  that  they  are  neces- 
sarily bad  ?  -Some  one  has  said  that  it  is  only  the  non- 
moralizing  of  them  that  makes  badness  a  fact.  Even 
the  stubbornness  and  selfishness  of  a  child  when  hin- 
dered in  its  outreach  to  satisfy  its  elemental  appe- 
tites, may  be  recognized  as  tendencies  unmoralized. 
To  look  upon  the  rush  of  the  child  toward  that  which 
its  nature  propels  it  naturally,  as  a  sign  of  inherent 
corruption,  is  a  mistake.    We  are  to  recognize  simply 


THE  EELIGION  OF  THE  CHILD     149 

instincts  and  appetites  uncontrolled  by  intelligence 
and  the  spiritual  and  moral  nature.  There  seems 
to  be  much  in  the  child  which  substantiates  the  claim 
of  some  that  he  is  a  little  devil  and  is  the  inheritor 
of  a  depraved  and  corrupt  nature.  He  is  very  impa- 
tient of  reasonable  restraint,  he  fights  bitterly  against 
discipline,  he  exhibits  bursts  of  passion,  cruelty,  wil- 
fulness and  a  craze  for  self  pleasing  which  causes 
mothers  and  fathers  occasionally  and  neighbors  quite 
often,  to  conclude  that  the  devil  or  at  least  old  Adam, 
is  incarnated  in  him.  From  a  certain  view  point  of 
the  child  one  can  prove  the  old  doctrine  of  original 
sin.  And  it  is  very  true  that  taking  children  as 
they  are  reveals  much  that  is  far  from  ideal,  and 
seems  to  give  credence  to  the  theory  of  total  deprav- 
ity. There  is  a  something  in  the  natures  of  some 
of  them  which  does  not  admit  of  any  sentimental  and 
idealistic  conclusions.  However  looking  at  the  facts 
about  our  own  children  and  those  of  others,  is  it  not 
true  that  the  badness  of  the  child  wherever  it  is  evi- 
dent can  be  satisfactorily  explained  by  the  nonmor- 
alizing  of  the  instincts  and  appetites  of  his  nature  ? 
If  those  elemental  appetites  and  instincts  had  been 
understood,  reckoned  with  intelligently,  held  in  check 
and  controlled  and  directed  morally,  would  not  the 
results  have  been  satisfactory?  Would  he  not  have 
seemed  to  be  angelic  ?  Phcebe  Gray  in  her  touching 
story  of  ''Little  Sir  Galahad"  writes : 

"You  cannot  account  for  the  impulses  of  boys  on  any 
ground  of  malice  and  depravity.  A  boy  is  the  most  experi- 
mentmg  of  animals,  yearning  always  to  see  what  will  happen 
under  any  set  of  untested  circumstances.  Desiring  to  scrutin- 
ize the  activities  of  a  wingless  fly,  he  takes  the  most  direct 
route.  Curiosity,  not  cruelty,  should  l)e  charged  with  the  onus 
of  the  deed.  To  say  that  a  boy  is  bad  because  he  produces  bad 
results  would  be  much  too  sweeping." 


150  PEKSONAL  KELIGION 

Understanding  the  child  we  shall  be  able  to  judge 
more  truly  of  his  badness  or  goodness. 

We  need  not  be  staggered  by  David's  confession 
in  the  fifty-first  psalm  when  such  words  as  "in  sin 
did  my  mother  conceive  me"  are  credited  to  him. 
It  is  worse  than  absurd  to  build  up  a  doctrine  of 
total  depravity  from  this  confession  which  shall  apply 
to  every  child  coming  into  the  world.  These  words 
of  the  Psalmist  give  to  us  an  orientalism,  express- 
ing shame  and  disgust  of  himself,  wherein  he  con- 
fesses his  sense  of  moral  weakness,  a  weakness  which 
has  been  with  him  all  his  life  and  was  with  him 
even  in  his  birth.  One  greatly  errs  who  imagines 
that  sin  is  an  essential  part  of  the  nature  of  the  child. 
Sin  is  an  abnormal  twist  or  misdirection  of  that 
which  was  meant  to  be  good  and  noble.  We  fail  to 
find  any  saying  of  Jesus  which  intimates  that  sin 
is  integral  to  the  child.  It  is  not  in  his  true  self  as  it 
came  into  being  or  his  human  body  in  which  that 
self  was  destined  to  live.  Believing  that  the  child 
was  actually  conceived  in  sin,  the  fond  parents  have 
taken  their  little  one  in  the  arms  and  have  been 
obliged  to  accept  the  decisions  of  the  theologian  re- 
garding him.  They  have  faced  two  alternatives. 
They  were  to  think  that  the  human  spirit,  or  the 
real  self  of  the  child,  came  into  the  world  pure  but 
was  obliged  to  accept  a  human  flesh  environment 
which  was  tainted  by  sin,  and  would  surely  force 
him  to  sin,  or  the  spirit  of  the  child  came  into  being 
with  its  essential  nature  corrupted  by  sin  but  was 
to  live  in  a  human  tabernacle  which  was  pure  and 
would  be  forced  into  sin  by  the  corrupted  spirit.  The 
truth  is  that  the  mother  and  father  may  believe  that 
neither  the  human  spirit  nor  the  flesh  environment 


THE  EELIGION"  OF  THE  CHILD     151 

of  the  babe  they  love,  is  necessarily  contaminated. 
The  spirit  is  the  self  realization  of  the  Eternal  Spirit, 
the  Heavenly  Father,  and  the  hnman  body  is  that 
house  in  which  he  would  have  the  spirit  exercise  its 
divine  functions.  God  did'  not  handicap  a  pure  soul 
in  a  sin-tainted  body  of  flesh,  or  oblige  a  noble  body 
to  house  a  sin-laden  soul  all  through  its  earthly  career. 
They  fit  each  other  according  to  the  divine  plan  and 
may  be  happily  correlated.  The  parents  are  not  to 
mourn  over  the  supposed  fact  that  they  have  given 
birth  to  such  a  monstrosity  as  either  of  the  alterna- 
tives would  suggest.  They  are  to  look  upon  the  babe 
as  a  pure  spirit  cradled  in  a  human  environment 
which  was  conceived  by  the  Father  himself  to  be 
fitting  and  beautiful.  The  little  human  animal  does 
not  come  into  the  world  contaminated  by  sin. 

The  presence  of  the  animal  tendencies  for  which 
the  child  is  not  responsible,  cannot  therefore  be  sin. 
The  very  outreach  of  them  which  issues  in  more  or 
less  selfishness  and  greed  as  the  child  seeks  to  satisfy 
its  nature,  cannot  reasonably  be  considered  sin  until 
that  child  comes  to  an  age  of  intelligence  and  moral 
consciousness  and  the  will  is  revealed  as  a  power  to 
express  moral  responsibility.  Goodness  and  badness 
are  in  the  child  only  as  that  child  acts  with  the  will 
and  intelligently  for  the  right  or  in  the  interests  of 
the  wrong.  Some  refer  to  sinful  passions  and  appe- 
tites, but  such  terms  are  not  correct  when  referring  to 
passions  and  appetites  which  are  common  to  a  human- 
ity which  the  Father  wisely  planned  that  the  child 
should  possess  in  its  development  to  the  Father's  ideal. 
These  become  sinful  only  as  the  will  intelligently  and 
deliberately  abuses  and  misdirects  them.  The  scholar 
declares  that  they  are  the  raw  material  out  of  which 


152  PEESONAL  KELIGION 

good,  just  as  well  as  evil,  may  come.  They  are  really 
indifferent  stuff  awaiting  moralization.  Even  fear 
is  the  basis  of  cowardice  and  courage  alike.  The 
emotion  of  anger  is  the  source  of  righteous  indigna- 
tion against  wrong  as  well  as  of  vindictive  passion. 
The  child's  virtues  and  vices  have  the  same  roots. 
The  will  determines  what  those  roots  shall  develop 
into.  There  is  no  sin  in  the  root.  The  evil  arises 
when  the  will  refuses  to  moralize  the  root  develop- 
ment. So  the  Master  impressed  upon  me  the  truth, 
as  we  together  examined  the  nature  of  the  child,  that 
he  was  innocent  of  any  inborn  sinfulness.  He  said, 
''His  appetites  are  blind ;  action  is  not  purposive,  but 
simply  as  the  psychologist  maintains,  the  automatic 
response  to  stimulus  and  therefore  nonmoral."  The 
child  in  following  his  impulses  is  expressing  the  law 
of  his  being.  What  is  needed  is  the  intelligence,  and 
will  to  control  all  human  appetites  and  tendencies 
so  that  they  will  fulfil  their  divine  function  and  co- 
operate in  making  the  child  what  the  Heavenly 
Father  desires  him  to  be. 

"But  there  is  another  fact  about  the  nature  of 
this  child  which  we  must  not  forget,"  said  the  Master, 
"and  that  is  his  moral  nature."  With  everything 
depending  upon  the  power  to  moralize  his  inherent 
tendencies,  this  part  of  his  being  is  very  important. 
It  is  the  development  of  this  moral  nature  within 
the  child  that  brings  the  act  of  volition  which  is 
wrong,  under  the  category  of  sin.  We  do  not  blame 
the  child  for  his  cruelty  to  a  kitten,  or  its  insatiable 
greediness  in  grasping  everything  he  can  lay  his 
hands  on.  We  are  confident  that  he  knows  no  better 
and  we  reason  that  he  knows  no  better  because  he 
has  not  acquired  even  a  rudimentary  conception  of 


THE  KELIGIO:^  OF  THE  CHILD     153 

the  moral  law.  He  has  so  little  moral  sense  that  he 
cannot  even  condemn  his  own  actions.  In  this  con- 
dition he  could  not  sin  because  he  has  no  moral  per- 
sonality. The  ablest  psychologists  inform  us  that  the 
awakening  of  the  moral  faculty  occurs  somewhere 
about  the  age  of  three  years.  This  does  not  imply 
however  that  from  the  age  of  three  years  we  are  to 
consider  the  child  so  accountable  for  his  life  that 
we  may  apply  the  epithet  of  sinner  to  him  rationally, 
whenever  there  seems  to  be  evidence  of  nonmoral  or 
immoral  actions.  His  moral  nature  is  just  beginning 
to  realize  itself.  He  blunders  continually  in  his  own 
endeavors  to  understand  himself  and  what  life  means. 
He  gradually  learns  the  moral  law  by  contact  with 
humanity  socially,  through  the  influences  of  correc- 
tion, instruction,  imitation  and  reflection.  At  first, 
good  is  simply  that  which  he  is  permitted  him  to  do 
and  be,  and  evil  is  that  which  he  is  forbidden  to  do 
and  be.  Slowly  does  he  emerge  as  a  moral  being 
into  that  moral  personality  which  is  essential  to  his 
knowledge  of  right  and  wrong  and  to  the  moralizing 
of  all  his  tendencies  and  powers.  The  age  of  ac- 
countability is  when  this  moral  nature  has  been  suffi- 
ciently developed  to  have  him  know  that  which  ap- 
pears to  him  right  and  wrong,  but  it  is  never  the 
same.  It  is  always  going  on  to  perfection  and  there- 
fore he  is  to  be  judged  by  the  degree  of  moral  devel- 
opment to  which  he  has  attained.  The  guilt  of  the 
child  will  be  in  proportion  to  his  rational  capacity, 
degree  of  moral  development,  and  opportunity  for 
moral  advancement. 

Fundamental  to  his  moral  development  is  his  re- 
ligious impulse.  Every  child  possesses  it.  It  is  that 
which  explains  the  religious  history  of  the  world.    It 


154  PEKSONAL  EELIGIOIT 

is  that  in  man  which  reveals  the  universal  capacity 
for  religion.  The  inherent  impulse  in  man  toward 
religion  is  a  faculty  of  his  powers  as  a  human  being. 
It  is  no  abnormal  insertion  into  his  selfhood.  It  is 
basic  within  him.  It  is  the  outcome  of  the  natural 
and  normal  activities  of  his  human  nature.  The 
Master  dwelt  at  length  upon  this  as  we  talked  to- 
gether. He  seemed  to  probe  to  the  deepest  depths  of 
the  child's  nature  as  we  analyzed  his  being.  He  said 
this  religious  impulse  is  what  must  be  recognized, 
found  and  trained,  if  the  moralizing  of  his  human 
appetites  and  powers  is  to  be  achieved.  Every  one 
should  think  of  the  child  as  possessing  this  impulse 
with  all  that  it  implied  regarding  his  inclination 
toward  and  capacity  for  religion.  It  is  the  centre 
to  which  all  who  have  the  child's  welfare  at  heart 
must  go.  It  is  the  basis  of  all  hope  for  his  life. 
The  religion  of  the  child  is  possible  because  of  it 
and  will  be  experienced  as  his  human  life  career  is 
correlated  to  it.  This  does  not  signify  that  the 
child  possesses  a  certain  peculiar  impulse  or  charac- 
teristic of  his  nature  which  stands  out  separately 
from  all  else  of  his  personality,  and  which  can  be 
caught  by  psychological  tweezers,  much  as  a  dentist 
grasps  the  nerve  of  a  tooth.  It  is  really  the  sum  total 
of  his  capacities  for  thinking,  feeling  and  willing  as 
a  human  being.  It  cannot  be  identified  solely  with 
his  moral,  social,  intellectual  or  spiritual  nature.  It 
cannot  be  limited  to  the  subconscious  or  any  single 
impulse  of  instinct.  It  is  complex.  It  has  many 
roots.  It  is  capable  of  many  diverse  expressions. 
Yet  there  is  a  unity  about  these  expressions  in  the 
human  race  and  there  is  that  in  the  child  which  may 
be  reached,  trained  and  perfected. 


THE  KELIGION  OF  THE  CHILD     155 

The  religion  of  the  child  is  to  be  experienced  in 
the  proper  education  or  his  personality  amid  its  life 
surroundings.  It  is  to  be  the  normal  expression  of 
his  human  being.  It  is  to  be  the  growing  of  germs 
which  his  Heavenly  Father  has  placed  within  him. 
There  is  that  within  every  child  which  if  wisely  and 
thoroughly  developed  will  issue  in  a  sensible  religious 
faith,  a  pious  religious  life,  a  righteous  religious 
character  and  an  aggressive  religious  activity.  The 
most  prominent  religious  educators  of  the  centuries 
past  and  the  present  have  approached  and  are  ap- 
proaching the  child  with  these  suppositions  in  mind 
and  their  experiences  warrant  these  conclusions.  Sir 
Francis  Bacon  believed  that  the  rational  powers  of 
the  soul  were  divine  and  that  man  comes  to  his  re- 
ligious consciousness  through  natural  means.  Come- 
nius  identified  religion  with  the  natural  qualities  of 
the  child's  life.  He  believed  that  the  seeds  of  learn- 
ing, virtue  and  piety  were  naturally  implanted  in 
the  human  soul  by  the  God  of  all  mankind.  And 
said  he,  refen*ing  to  the  fact  that  man  came  from 
God,  "There  is  no  direction  in  which  he  can  be  more 
easily  carried  by  his  desires  than  toward  the  fountain 
whence  he  took  his  origin."  Pestalozzi  the  great 
Swiss  educator  wrote  as  follows:  "The  child  loves 
and  believes  before  he  thinks  and  acts.  These  forces 
of  the  heart,  faith  and  love — are  in  the  formation  of 
immortal  man,  what  the  root  is  for  the  tree."  Froebel 
strongly  emphasized  the  belief  that  the  child's  nature 
is  essentially  religious  and  did  all  of  his  work  from 
this  basic  thought.  His  philosophy  in  brief  was  as 
follows :  The  whole  universe  is  divinely  constituted. 
It  is  the  external  expression  of  a  spiritual  energy. 
This  energy  is  really  God.     Man  is  a  part  of  the 


156  PEKSONAL  EELIGIOI^ 

self  expression  of  God  and  the  universal  process  of 
the  Father's  self  realization.     He  declared : 

"It  is  the  special  destiny  and  life  work  of  man,  as  an  intel- 
ligent and  rational  being,  to  become  fully,  vividly  and  clearly 
conscious  of  his  essence,  of  the  divine  effluence  in  him  and 
therefore  of  God;  to  become  conscious  of  his  destiny  and  life 
work ;  and  to  accomplish  this,  to  render  it  ( his  essence )  active, 
to  reveal  it  in  his  own  life  with  self  determination  and  free- 
dom." 

He  goes  on  further  to  state  that  by  education  (which 
means  to  lead  out)  the  divine  essence  in  man  shall  be 
unfolded,  lifted  into  consciousness,  man  himself  made 
free,  obedient  to  the  divine  principle  within  him 
and  able  to  moralize  all  his  tendencies  by  the  pres- 
ence of  the  living  God,  within  his  soul,  of  whom  he 
is  a  part. 

The  training  of  the  religious  nature  as  the  essen- 
tial essence  of  the  child,  in  its  full  rounded  entity 
and  activity  implies  much  if  that  child  is  to  have 
the  religious  experience  that  the  Heavenly  Father 
would  give  it.  The  mind  is  first  of  all  to  be  de- 
veloped religiously,  that  is,  is  to  think  correctly  and 
enlargingly  of  the  gTeat  fundamental  truths  concern- 
ing the  world  we  live  in.  The  child  is  to  be  taught 
the  fact  of  God,  his  character,  spirit  and  purpose. 
He  is  to  have  his  mind  turned,  in  the  earliest  days 
of  intelligence,  to  the  truth  that  God  is  to  be  thought 
of  as  his  Heavenly  Father,  who  loves  him,  and  has 
a  holy  purpose  for  him.  There  is  no  truth  more 
important  to  impress  upon  the  young  child  than  this. 
Then  he  is  to  understand  the  world  about  him,  as  his 
intellectual  capacity  makes  it  possible.  Its  phenom- 
ena are  to  be  correlated  to  the  fact  of  the  Heavenly 
Father.     It  is  under  that  Father's  laws  that  the 


THE  EELIGIO^  OF  THE  CHILD     157 

world  is  developed.  Humanity  is  to  be  considered 
at  its  highest  value  in  the  plan  of  that  same  Father. 
The  laws  governing  it  are  to  be  thought  of  as  his. 
The  child  is  to  think  of  himself  with  all  others  and 
the  world  itself  as  a  part  of  this  gigantic  scheme  of 
God,  and  in  himself  and  the  world  about  him  he  is 
to  recognize  the  constant  presence  of  the  Father. 
He  should  come  into  this  consciousness  slowly  but 
surely  yet  naturally.  His  first  thought  of  himself 
in  relation  to  God  should  be  that  of  a  child  to  a 
father,  and  the  world  the  place  where  the  Father 
wants  him  to  be  for  the  present,  and  his  human 
surroundings  and  relationships  all  planned  by  that 
Father,  and  the  Father  always  with  his  own  ready 
to  be  approached  by  them,  wisely  planning  for  them 
and  anxious  to  help  them.  The  religious  life  is  to 
start  out  then  with  no  horrible  conceptions  of  God 
to  overcome.  The  mind  is  to  be  free  from  fear, 
ready  for  faith  and  open  to  enlargement  of  the  crude 
but  true  ideas  of  the  eternal  causes,  of  the  eternal 
presence  in  the  world,  what  humanity  is,  what  life 
signifies  in  the  wonderful  plan  of  God. 

Dr.  George  E.  Dawson,  in  his  admirable  little  book, 
''The  Child  and  His  Eeligion,"  writes  of  a  small  four 
year  old  boy  being  awakened  one  night  by  a  violent 
thunderstorm.  He  was  frightened  and  called  to  his 
mother,  ''Mamma,  God  won't  let  the  thunder  hurt  us, 
will  he  ?"  When  assured  that  the  lightning  was  gov- 
erned by  God's  laws,  and  that  there  was  little  or  no 
danger,  he  quieted  down  and  slept  soundly  all  night. 
So  far  as  known,  this  child  had  never  been  told  that 
God  protected  him  under  such  circumstances.  It  was 
evidently  an  inference  drawn  from  his  own  thoughts 
about  the  personal  influence  he  felt  to  pervade  the 


158  PEESO^AL  EELIGIOiN" 

world.  He  also  gave  evidence  that  he  naturally  be- 
lieved that  God  cared  for  him  in  other  ways  and 
also  for  people  in  general  and  also  animals.  From 
time  to  time  he  asked  a  number  of  questions  as  to 
whether  God  liked  him,  took  care  of  his  sister  before 
she  was  born,  how  he  fed  the  squirrels  in  the  winter 
and  how  he  makes  children  good.  In  all  his  questions 
there  was  implied  a  real  faith  that  God  is  in  the 
world,  keeping  it  in  order,  and  caring  for  his  crea- 
tures in  a  most  benevolently  and  tender  way.  Chil- 
dren in  normal  circumstances  come  to  this  faith  so 
naturally  and  may  be  developed  in  it  so  easily.  The 
reliffious  life  of  the  child  is  thus  established  and 
progress  toward  more  intelligence  and  a  larger  expe- 
rience assured.  We  need  not  worry  how  to  give  our 
children  an  idea  of  God.  Some  declare  that  it  is  not 
necessary  to  give  the  child  the  idea  of  God,  at  all, 
for  as  Dr.  Montessori  says  "every  child  has  it."  We 
are  not  obliged  to  take  the  child  through  even  an 
abbreviated  theological  course.  Perhaps  we  need  to 
do  less  teaching  and  more  watching,  less  trying  to 
get  something  into  the  child  and  more  watering  and 
nourishing  that  which  is  there  potentially.  After 
pointing  out  good  and  evil  and  expecting  them  to 
choose  the  good,  and  observing  tendencies  which  need 
to  be  directed  we  shall  have  the  privilege  of  witness- 
ing a  miracle.  God  consciousness  in  mind  and  soul 
may  blossom  at  once.  Dr.  Montessori  asks  the  par- 
ents to  prepare  for  this  miracle  in  the  home.  She 
suggests  to  mothers  and  fathers  a  new  beatitude. 
"Blessed  are  those  who  feel,"  and  another  adds,  "for 
they  shall  know  God."  He  is  not  far  away  from  the 
child's  heart  and  life.  It  ought  not  to  be  very  dif- 
ficult to  lead  the  child  out  to  be  conscious  of  him. 


THE  EELIGION  OF  THE  CHILD     159 

It  also  includes  the  development  of  that  part  of 
the  child's  nature  which  we  name  his  conscience. 
This  is  the  essential  organ  of  his  moral  personality. 
He  is  born  with  something  which  may  grow  into  a 
conscience.  It  is  his  germinal  moral  capacity.  It  is 
to  be  brought  into  conscious  contact  with  the  moral 
law  of  God.  This  law  will  be  made  known  to  the 
child  through  his  social  consciousness,  for  right  and 
wrong  will  have  to  do  with  other  human  beings.  The 
enforced  obedience  which  he  is  subjected  to  by  his 
parents  will  cause  the  child  to  be  conscious  of  a  life 
above  the  life  of  the  mere  impulse  of  his  nature. 
He  will  realize  that  there  is  a  right  way  and  a  wrong 
way  to  use  the  impulses  of  his  nature.  He  will  find 
that  he  has  a  relationship  to  others  and  in  that  rela- 
tionship he  will  discover  the  law  of  his  Heavenly 
Father  for  him.  As  this  conscience  is  developed,  his 
moral  responsibility  will  be  established  and  he  will 
be  capable  of  becoming  ethically  religious.  He  will 
be  truly  religious  as  he  acts  toward  his  playmates 
and  friends  in  accordance  to  that  enlightened  con- 
science. A  study  of  the  Montessori  methods  in  con- 
science training  will  be  very  advantageous.  She  tells 
us  that  if  we  but  watch  a  little  child's  free  spon- 
taneous use  of  his  soul  fingers,  his  daily  loves,  faith, 
and  hopes,  these  will  shine  for  us  as  a  Bethlehem 
Star  path,  leading  us  to  the  manger  throne  of  the 
King  in  the  making.  As  we  turn  a  child's  tendency 
to  handle,  into  mind  training,  we  will  turn  his  mani- 
festations of  inner  sensibility  into  morality.  It  also 
includes  the  conscious  surrender  of  the  will  to  this 
Heavenly  Father.  This  surrender  will  be  in  the 
realm  of  daily  life  duties.  It  will  not  be  some  imag- 
inary surrender  to  a  mythical  being  who  has  written 


160  PERSOl^AL  RELIGION 

his  demands  in  spiritual  hieroglyphics  on  some  mys- 
tical blackboard.  It  will  be  a  conscious  yielding  to 
his  will  as  that  will  is  understood  to  have  to  do  with 
the  child's  relationship  to  his  parents,  playmates,  and 
the  world  in  which  he  lives.  Conceiving  of  what  the 
Father's  ideal  for  his  life  is  as  he  grows  up,  sur- 
render of  the  will  to  that  later  will  be  simply  willing 
to  do  unto  others  as  he  would  have  him.  It  will  be 
the  simplest  and  most  natural  thing  to  do.  It  will  be 
obedience  to  mother,  care  for  sister,  love  for  father, 
respect  for  right,  and  devotion  to  the  good.  It  will 
be  simply  fitting  into  the  Father's  ideal  of  life  by  a 
definite  and  continuous  act  of  the  will.  The  child 
also  has  a  heart,  a  seat  of  affection  where  love  is 
born  and  developed,  and  the  religion  of  the  child  in- 
cludes the  training  of  this  heart  to  love  the  Father 
and  to  set  its  affection  in  love  upon  that  which  the 
Father  loves.  That  is  the  child  grows  to  like  that 
which  the  Father,  in  his  little  mind,  stands  for. 
When  a  child  likes  something  it  is  equivalent  to  lov- 
ing it.  When  a  child  likes  that  which  it  conceives 
the  Father  would  have  him  be  or  do,  it  is  the  same 
as  that  child  loving  the  one  whom  he  associates  with 
that  which  he  likes.  The  child  is  therefore  religious, 
he  loves  God  and  he  likes  that  which  he  thinlcs 
his  Heavenly  Father  desires  him  to  be  and  do. 
Therefore  when  the  mind,  conscience,  will  and  heart 
of  the  child  are  being  brought  into  conformity  to 
the  spirit,  purpose  and  ideal  of  the  Father  that  child 
is  becoming  religious.  Its  spiritual  nature  is  being- 
developed.  It  is  moving  on  to  the  goal  which  was 
marked  out  by  the  divine  mind  for  it. 

The  human  spirit  is  really  a  part  of  God  taber- 
nacled in  flesh  and  living  on  the  earth.     The  fond 


THE  EELIGIOIT  OF  THE  CHILD     161 

parents  have  a  perfect  right  to  think  this  when  they 
take  baby  to  their  hearts.  This  is  the  highest  con- 
ception we  can  have  of  humanity  and  we  believe  it 
to  be  a  true  one.  There  is  no  conscious  individuality 
in  baby,  but  it  soon  develops.  Self  consciousness,  a 
sense  of  difference  between  others  and  itself  arises 
and  in  a  few  years  it  announces  its  selfhood  in  the 
personal  pronovm  ''!."  Unless  very  different  from 
most  human  beings,  there  comes  with  this  sense  of 
individuality  a  sense  of  separateness  from  God.  Or 
at  least  no  sense  of  union  with  him.  God  is  not  a 
reality.  That  the  individual  life  came  from  him  is 
not  appreciated  or  even  realized  at  all.  The  conse- 
quence is,  that  the  life,  in  perpetuating  its  individu- 
ality, moves  along  without  conscious  union  with  God, 
its  author,  and  this  movement,  without  God  con- 
sciousness, leads  to  sin.  There  is  no  thought  of  do- 
ing his  will,  of  living  in  harmony  with  his  laws,  or  of 
becoming  one  with  him  in  his  purpose.  The  Father 
and  the  child  are  morally  separated.  Then  even 
when  his  will  is  presented  it  may  not  be  considered  or 
it  may  even  be  repudiated.  This  constitutes  the  es- 
sence of  sin.  The  child  of  God  has  become  actually 
rebellious  against  the  desires,  plans,  and  hopes  of  the 
Heavenly  Father  for  him.  To  lead  the  child,  who 
naturally  responds  *to  the  fact  of  God  which  he  finds 
within  him,  to  a  conscious  spiritual  union  with  him 
by  an  act  of  faith  and  will,  which  issues  in  loving 
obedience  to  his  will  in  the  round  of  his  little  life, 
and  which  deepens  and  widens  as  life  grows,  is  to 
lead  him  into  that  experience  which  is  fundamentally 
religious. 

The  child  becomes  a  Christian  as  he  comes  to  the 
religious  experience  which  Jesus  revealed  was  the 


162  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

true  one  for  humanity.  We  have  said  that  he  was 
to  think  of  himself  as  a  human  being,  a  child  of 
God,  who  is  love,  in  the  Father's  world,  and  with 
other  children  and  with  older  people  who  are  mem- 
bers of  the  same  human  family  because  God  has 
planned  it ;  he  is  to  come  to  moral  consciousness, 
realizing  right  and  wrong,  moralizing  his  appetites 
and  powers,  he  is  to  love  what  the  Father  loves  and 
will  do  what  the  Father  would  have  him  in  all  human 
relationships,  in  order  to  be  religious  and  live  a  re- 
ligious life.  Now  for  him  to  be  a  Christian  means 
that  he  interprets  all  of  this,  in  the  light  of  Jesus' 
teachings,  and  comes  to  that  experience  which  Jesus 
as  his  teacher,  leader  and  Saviour  would  introduce 
him  to.  He  studies  the  Bible,  as  the  best  religious 
book  on  earth,  and  recognizes  it  to  be  a  record  of 
the  religious  development  of  a  particular  nation,  cul- 
minating in  the  story  of  the  life  and  influence  of 
Jesus  Christ.  He  places  his  mind  and  heart,  con- 
science and  will  imder  the  tutelage  of  the  Master 
and  seeks  to  know  what  he  would  have  him  learn  re- 
garding the  life  which  is  to  be  religious.  His  idea  of 
God,  his  nature,  disposition  and  will,  his  conscious- 
ness of  right  and  wrong,  and  his  ideal  for  humanity 
will  be  what  Jesus  makes  plain  to  him.  His  soul 
will  be  awakened  to  what  Jesus  would  have  him  be, 
he  will  be  led  to  faith  in  the  Heavenly  Father  whom 
Jesus  reveals,  will  desire  to  be  good  as  he  understands 
goodness  from  Jesus'  definition  of  it,  will  be  sorry 
for  and  turn  away  from  wrong  as  he  conceives  of  it  in 
view  of  what  Jesus  teaches  him,  will  trust  his  Heav- 
enly Father  to  forgive  him  as  Jesus  has  made  plain 
to  him,  will  trust  his  soul  and  life  to  the  Father 
because  of  faith  in  Jesus  who  came  to  manifest  him. 


THE  EELIGION  OF  THE  CHILD     163 

It  will  be  a  simple,  beautiful  heart,  soul  and  life 
conformity  to  the  ideals,  spirit  and  purpose  of  the 
Father  as  revealed  in  Jesus,  which  will  issue  in  love 
and  kindness  to  one  and  all  whom  he  associates  with. 
As  this  is  accomplished  in  the  child  he  will  become 
a  Christian.  He  experiences  the  religion  which  Jesus 
came  to  give  to  the  world.  We  should  introduce 
the  child  to  Jesus  who  will  surely  lead  him  into 
what  he  should  know  and  experience.  Jesus  becomes 
his  Saviour  and  Lord. 

But  it  does  not  seem  easy,  so  say  some  people,  to 
lead  every  child  into  this  religious  experience  which 
we  have  outlined ;  at  times  all  methods  fail  and  all 
expectations  fall  short.  We  might  just  as  well  ac- 
knowledge it  one  time  as  another,  they  declare,  chil- 
dren do  exhibit  that  spirit  and  that  life  which  is 
contrary  to  Christ  and  which  bears  the  mark  of  wil- 
ful wickedness.  Some  come  into  the  world  with  all 
the  animal  tendencies  and  features  which  have  been 
piling  up  in  an  unmoralized  and  even  immoral  and 
irreligious  ancestry  for  centuries.  And  others  of 
the  best  of  training  and  influence  apparently  give  the 
lie  to  the  statement  that  they  came  from  God.  They 
rebel  against  their  Heavenly  Father  and  persist  in 
their  determination  to  be  disobedient  and  wilful. 
They  spend  their  time  on  the  frivolous  and  have  no 
desire  to  be  unselfish  and  noble.  They  are  evidently 
going  away  from  God.  They  are  moving  in  a  direc- 
tion which  will  lead  to  disaster  just  as  sure  as  God 
exists.  Two  questions  come  to  us  at  once.  W^hat 
do  they  need  and  how  shall  we  secure  their  willing- 
ness to  be  what  Jesus  would  have  them  be?  The 
answer  to  the  first  is  that  they  need  a  redirection  of 
their  real  selfhood  which  has  become  so  engrossed  in 


164  PERSONAL  RELIGION" 

the  animal  and  time  instincts  of  humanity  that  it 
has  lost  its  way  in  its  journey  to  its  divine  destiny. 
They  need  a  change,  a  real  conversion,  a  right  about 
face,  in  spirit,  disposition,  purpose  and  activity. 
They  need  to  realize  the  sin  of  thus  rebelling  against 
their  Heavenly  Father  and  refusing  his  proffers  of 
love  and  help  in  Jesus  if  they  have  really  done  this. 
They  need  a  spiritual  and  moral  invigoration  which 
shall  enable  them  to  moralize  the  inherited  tendencies 
of  their  natures,  which  shall  give  them  power  to 
overcome  the  twist  that  sin  has  given  them  as  they 
have  yielded  to  it  and  to  redirect  the  normal  powers 
of  their  souls  and  lives  toward  that  which  is  right, 
noble  and  useful.  They  need  all  of  this  to  be 
Christians.  The  answer  to  the  second  question  seems 
to  be  far  more  problematical  than  the  first.  It  is 
easy  enough  to  tell  what  a  wa^'ward  child  needs, 
how  to  correct  that  child  is  another  proposition.  In 
the  first  place  each  one  should  be  dealt  with  indi- 
vidually and  wise  discriminations  should  be  made  in 
each  case.  We  shall  probably  find  that  more  than 
one  came  into  the  world  with  his  little  soul  more  or 
less  smothered,  and  that  few  ever  were  really  under- 
stood by  their  loved  ones  and  friends  and  not  many 
of  them  were  accorded  the  intelligent  and  thorough 
religious  training  which  was  their  birthright.  In 
the  second  place  we  should  approach  them  with  the 
faith  that  within  them  were  capabilities  of  response 
to  the  good  and  true  and  that  no  one  is  hopeless,  and 
also  a  faith  in  the  message  of  Jesus  to  the  child.  In 
the  third  place  we  should  deal  with  them  in  love  and 
a  love  that  establishes  confidence,  inspires  hope  and 
patiently  nurtures  the  least  that  is  commendable. 
Given  these,  there  are  few  boys  and  girls  who  can- 


THE  EELIGIO:^^  OF  THE  CHILD      1G5 

not  be  won  to  goodness  and  all  that  Jesus  would 
have  them  be.  The  record  of  Judge  Lindsay's  work 
with  apparently  bad  boys  and  the  results  of  the  efforts 
of  the  Dayton  Cash  Kegister  Company  to  redeem  the 
boys  of  "slumville,"  afford  us  with  a  vivid  illustra- 
tion of  the  fact  that  no  child  is  all  bad  and  there  is  a 
way  to  reach  even  the  most  incorrigible. 

The  church  is  recognizing  and  accepting  the  grave 
responsibility  regarding  the  child  and  his  religious 
development  as  never  in  her  history.  There  is  a 
general  confidence  that  we  have  ascertained  the  Mas- 
ter's estimate  and  analysis  of  the  child  and  have 
found  his  way  of  leading  this  child  out  to  the  re- 
ligious and  moral  experiences  which  have  always  been 
his  birthright.  More  than  this  the  church  gives 
evidence  of  a  wise  leadership  in  this  realm,  a  leader- 
ship which  is  bringing  the  church  to  consecrate  its 
best  genius  and  power  to  a  more  scientific  and  thor- 
ough husbandry  of  our  boys  and  girls  by  the  process 
of  spiritual  and  moral  education  than  has  ever  been 
known.  The  church  as  a  whole  is  rapidly  coming  to 
believe  that  there  are  few  children  who  cannot  be 
led  to  experience  religion  genuinely  by  spiritual  proc- 
esses of  evolution  which  include  every  crisis  of  hu- 
man life  and  that  they  can  come  to  these  normally, 
pass  through  them  intelligently  and  progress  natu- 
rally into  the  soul  and  life  achievements  which  are 
indispensable  to  a  Christian  experience.  We  are  be- 
lieving that  it  is  presumption  to  ask  God  to  produce 
miracles  in  maturity  if  we  fail  as  educators  to  work 
the  field  of  youth  sensibly  and  faithfully.  We  are 
sure  that  the  failure  of  the  past  has  not  been  due 
primarily  to  the  defects  in  the  religious  nature  or  the 
moral  capabilities  of  the  child,  but  to  our  failure 


166  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

to  understand  him  and  our  blundering  with  him. 
But  there  is  no  excuse  for  mistakes  now.  We  know 
that  with  proper  training  the  boj  should  approach 
the  religious  crises  of  his  soul  and  life  as  a  part  of 
the  Father's  plan  for  him  and  should  understand  just 
what  he  is  and  what  his  father's  attitude  toward  him 
is  and  what  he  expects  him  to  be  and  what  he  desires 
to  do  for  him  as  he  realizes  his  own  helplessness.  The 
loud  cry  ''What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  from  a  boy 
of  twelve  years  of  age  expressing  agony  and  ignor- 
ance, is  not  something  to  rejoice  in  but  to  deplore, 
for  it  reveals  that  we  have  largely  failed  to  make 
plain  to  that  boy  what  his  condition  implied  and 
what  he  should  do  because  of  it.  He  may  come  to 
his  moral  and  religious  crises  with  a  consciousness 
of  moral  defects  and  sorrow  for  sin  but  he  ought 
to  know  that  Jesus  has  revealed  the  Father  who  is 
ready  to  forgive  and  help  the  moment  he  turns  away 
from  wrong  and  to  him.  The  consciousness  of  the 
Father  should  be  so  strong  that  the  boy  would  in- 
stinctively find  his  heart.  Woe  be  to  the  evangelist 
or  pastor  or  Christian  worker  with  the  young,  who 
gives  these  children  erroneous  conceptions  of  the 
Father,  who  fails  rightly  to  interpret  their  tendencies 
and  problems  to  them,  who  misjudges  and  falsely 
condemns  them,  who  doubts  their  inherent  capacity 
for  God  and  good,  who  fails  to  make  clear  to  them 
the  genius  of  Jesus'  simple  and  beautiful  religion, 
who  places  before  them  unreasonable  alternatives, 
who  fogs  their  soul  vision  with  definitions  and  (Jog- 
mas,  and  who  does  anything  with  them  but  to  lead 
them  onward  and  upward  to  the  Christian  manhood 
and  womanhood  which  the  Master  came  to  give  them. 
All  honor  to  the  increasing;  number  of  noble  and 


THE  KELIGION  OF  THE  CHILD     16Y 

intelligent  men  and  women  leaders  in  religious  edu- 
cation who  are  understanding  the  child  and  are  mak- 
ing religion  seem  normal  to  the  rollicking  boy  and 
girl  and  leading  them  through  the  crises  of  their  lives 
with  divine  foresight  and  tact. 


CHAPTER   EIGHT 
THE    CHRISTIAN    MOTIVES 

WE  have  long  been  accustomed  to  appreciate  the 
vahie  of  motive  in  estimating  religious  charac- 
ter. St.  Thomas  a  Kempis  once  said,  "God  weighs 
the  motive  of  one's  action  rather  than  the  amount 
of  performance."  There  is  truth  in  the  statement 
that  a  man  is  very  largely  what  he  tries  to  be.  The 
Christian  career  is  one  which  is  tested  by  its  mo- 
tives. A  Christian  is  not  a  Christian  unless  his 
motives  are  what  they  should  be.  The  life  of  re- 
spectability must  be  punctured  by  the  query  con- 
cerning the  motive,  to  ascertain  its  real  value.  The 
life  also  of  devotion  to  an  apparently  high  idealism 
and  even  that  of  Christian  activity  must  be  judged 
the  same  way.  This  is  because  motives  are  from 
the  heart  and  the  heart  tests  the  real  man.  The 
questions  as  to  why  we  do  what  we  do  and  why  we 
are  what  we  are,  call  up  the  purposes  of  the  inmost 
nature  and  reveal  what  we  are.  We  have  become  so 
accustomed  to  this  reasoning  that  it  is  almost  trite. 
Yet  perhaps  its  full  implication  needs  emphasis.  If 
the  test  of  religion  is  after  all  in  the  motives  of  the 
heart  as  manifested  in  the  life,  if  our  entire  life 
careers  are  to  be  judged  at  the  last  day  by  the  single 
word  "why,"  if  our  purposes  are  our  real  charac- 
ters, then  it  behooves  each  person  to  be  sure  that 
his  purposes  are  true  to  the  spirit  of  Christ.     But 

168 


THE  CHEISTIAN  MOTIVES  169 

more  than  this,  this  same  test  should  be  applied 
to  each  person  in  the  initial  step  of  becoming  a 
Christian.  There  are  un-Christian  motives  for  ac- 
cepting the  faith,  idealism  and  activities  of  a  Chris- 
tian life.  At  the  very  beginning,  one  should  respond 
to  the  higher  purposes  and  nobler  reasoning  and 
move  toward  Christ  and  his  expectations  of  him,  with 
pure  motives  in  his  soul.  If  he  does  not,  how  can  he 
even  begin  the  Christian  life  aright  ?  Without  such 
motives,  how  can  he  grow  into  that  Christlikeness 
of  character  which  is  indispensable  to  a  Christian 
life.  The  genius  of  the  start  largely  determines  the 
nature  of  one's  Christian  character  and  the  direc- 
tion and  power  of  his  life.  The  originating  impulse 
should  be  essentially  Christlike  to  be  Christian.  It 
should  be  of  the  same  sort  as  the  after  life  must  be, 
to  be  truly  Christlike. 

The  early  Christians  gave  no  evidence  of  being 
entirely  free  from  the  lesser  motives  in  their  religious 
lives.  The  truth  is  that  the  Church  Fathers  did 
not  possess  that  purity  of  moral  motive  that  the  Greek 
philosophers  manifested.  The  scholars  make  it  very 
plain  to  us  that  there  is  a  great  contrast  between 
the  motives  of  the  Christian  thinkers  of  the  early 
centuries  and  the  ancients  of  Greece.  The  one 
thought  which  controlled  the  minds  of  the  Christians, 
was  the  blessedness  of  happiness  hereafter  which 
they  might  secure  and  therefore  their  motive  in  fore- 
going pleasure  or  indulgence  in  any  sensuous  or  tem- 
porary gratification  on  earth,  was  to  gain  this  eternal 
joy  in  the  future  life.  The  Greek  thinkers  with 
one  accord  attributed  an  intrinsic  beauty  to  good- 
ness and  elevated  the  joy  of  participation  in  this 
beauty  into  the  highest  impulse  for  conduct,  but  the 


iro  PERSON'AL  KELIGION 

great  majority  of  the  churcli  Fathers,  particularly  the 
Latin  Fathers,  insisted  strenuously  upon  an  ample 
reward  for  virtue.  The  evidence  is  that  these  Fa- 
thers regarded  virtue  simply  as  a  means  to  blessed- 
ness, a  highly  wrought  out  and  fanciful  happiness 
which  they  were  to  experience  in  the  life  beyond 
the  grave.  And  their  contemplation  of  this  led  them 
to  become  rather  indifferent  to  the  value  of  a  moral 
life  here  and  surely  gave  them  no  joy  in.  it.  Some 
scholars  declare  that  the  early  Christians  did  not 
hesitate  to  consider  it  actual  folly  to  suffer  the  pains 
which  the  life  of  virtue  might  involve  if  there  was 
no  sure  promise  of  reward  for  that  virtue  in  the 
future  life.  Lactantius  wrote,  "If  there  were  no 
immortality,  it  would  be  wise  to  do  evil  and  foolish 
to  do  good."  There  are  few  Christian  leaders  today 
who  would  countenance  such  a  statement  as  at  all 
compatible  with  true  Christian  ideals  or  motives. 
We  are  leagues  in  advance  of  such  conceptions  of 
Christian  character.  Yet  we  fear  that  there  are 
traces  of  such  ideas  to  be  found  today  and  they  are 
logically  accompanied  by  false  motives. 

It  will  be  interesting  for  us  to  consider  the  gen- 
erally accepted  motives  for  becoming  Christians 
which  are  in  vogue  quite  universally.  We  may  find 
that  while  we  profess  to  be  so  advanced  in  our  char- 
acter, we  still  fall  below  what  Jesus  would  have  us 
realize.  An  examination  of  the  reasons  which  led 
us  to  accept  Christ  and  follow  him,  or  those  which 
we  know  moved  others  to  do  the  same,  or  the  appeals 
we  and  others  known  to  us  have  made  to  secure 
confessions  of  faith  in  Christ  and  from  those  not 
professedly  Christian,  will  reveal  no  doubt  some  mo- 
tives altogether  unchristian  in  spirit  and  others,  while 


THE  CHEISTIAN  MOTIVES  171 

not  being  the  baser,  are  at  best  the  lesser  ones  of 
those  we  recognize  to  be  like  Christ.  There  are  some 
motives  which  are  quite  commendable  and  yet  not 
the  higher  ones  to  contemplate.  Take  for  instance 
the  motive  to  become  a  follower  of  Christ  that  one 
may  have  his  sin  forgiven  and  become  a  partaker  of 
the  love  of  God  in  that  forgiveness ;  the  motive  to 
secure  freedom  from  sin's  demoralizing  effects  in  the 
life;  the  desire  to  escape  the  personal  degradation 
and  ruin  which  sin  inevitably  brings;  that  which 
moves  one  to  Christ  in  order  that  his  life  may  be 
made  strong  and  capable  of  insuring  success  rather 
than  defeat ;  that  which  springs  from  the  reasoning 
which  makes  plain  the  misery  of  a  course  against 
truth  and  goodness  and  the  happiness  and  satisfaction 
in  living  for  righteousness;  that  which  arouses  one 
to  trust  in  and  live  for  Jesus  because  he  considers 
this  his  only  surety  of  eternal  life  and  joy  here- 
after. Yet  an  analysis  of  these  reveals  that  they  are 
all  permeated  more  or  less  with  the  thought  of  what 
one  may  get  out  of  life  for  himself.  They  do  not 
differ  very  much  from  those  of  the  early  Fathers 
who  did  not  possess  as  noble  motives  as  the  Greeks. 
One  wonders  just  how  many  have  accepted  Christ 
and  become  his  followers  with  the  single  thought  in 
mind,  "it  is  the  only  way  to  escape  punishment  and 
be  saved."  One  questions  as  to  how  many  have 
come  to  Jesus  because  they  truly  loved  goodness  itself 
and  loved  God  for  what  he  asked  them  to  be?  We 
are  confident  that  many  have,  and  we  are  also  very 
certain  that  the  motive  to  be  a  Christian  that  one  may 
overcome  his  own  sin  and  be  pure  and  true,  is  a  noble 
one  as  far  as  it  goes.  It  is  not  to  be  placed  among 
those  which  are  simply  the  desire  to  escape  the  pen- 


172  PEESONAL  KELIGIOJST 

alty  of  sin  in  some  future  existence. 

In  vain  do  we  study  the  teachings  of  Jesus  to  find 
his  sanction  by  direct  utterance  or  parable  inference 
of  the  motives  which  are  so  manifestly  selfish  and 
secondary.  Jesus  did  give  to  man  hope  of  eternal 
life,  he  also  revealed  eternal  values  by  discoursing 
on  the  advisability  of  laying  up  treasures  in  Heaven, 
but  he  never  intimated  that  the  motive  for  being 
noble  in  character,  pure  at  heart,  was  only  to  secure 
that  life  eternal  or  to  have  a  full  spiritual  bank 
account  in  the  Celestial  City.  And  we  are  positive 
that  his  compassion  for  suffering  and  needy  human- 
ity never  led  him  to  inspire  men  to  come  to  him 
only  that  they  might  be  helped.  He  continually  held 
up  to  them  higher  motives  than  those  which  were 
associated  with  personal  interests.  He  knew  that 
the  true  motive  for  beginning  a  life  of  goodness,  un- 
selfish sacrifice  and  service,  could  not  be  personal 
gain.  Selfishness  is  not  an  introduction  into  the 
Christ  life.  The  motive  of  seeking  Jesus  only  that 
one  may  be  saved  does  not  move  one  in  the  right 
direction.  It  is  not  a  response  to  the  essential  spirit 
of  Christianity.  Therefore  while  one  may  come  to 
Christ  to  receive  from  him  the  forgiveness  and  spir- 
itual power  needed,  his  motive  should  be  that  his  life 
may  be  saved  to  become  what  Christ  would  have  it 
become  in  the  highest  thought  of  the  Master  who 
came  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  the  world.  There 
is  a  decided  incongruity  therefore  in  coming  to  Christ 
solely  with  the  motive  to  secure  something  for  one's 
self.  The  idea  has  been  that  one  should  do  this 
at  first  and  then  think  of  something  higher  after- 
wards, but  we  are  led  to  emphasize  the  falsity  of 
this  contention.     Some  will  no  doubt  say  a  person 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MOTIVES  173 

must  have  Christ  before  he  can  take  him  to  others, 
bnt  can  a  person  truly  have  Christ  who  tries  to  get 
him  only  for  himself  ?  The  truth  is  that  the  motive 
in  coming  to  Christ  to  be  his  true  follower  must 
contain  the  desire  for  something  larger  and  grander 
than  mere  personal  profit.  That  is,  the  initial  step 
toward  Jesus  should  be  taken  in  that  spirit.  He 
who  has  that  motive  finds  Christ,  knows  true  religion 
and  becomes  a  true  Christian.  He  who  has  the  lesser 
motive  must  have  the  higher  one  developed  within 
his  heart  if  he  is  to  be  a  follower  of  Jesus.  When 
he  truly  comes  to  Christ  he  will  find  himself  pos- 
sessed with  it.  Possessed  with  it,  he  now  has  a  true 
Christianity  to  invite  others  to.  How  can  a  false 
or  entirely  selfish  motive  introduce  one  to  a  true 
Christian  life  ? 

There  is  an  insistent  moral  demand  upon  every 
one  who  desires  to  be  respectable  to  taboo  all  forms 
of  heinous  sin.  This  demand  is  recognized  to  be  far 
more  comprehensive  in  its  range  and  also  much 
deeper  in  its  significance  in  those  who  desire  to  be 
truly  religious  and  followers  of  Jesus  Christ.  It 
is  plainly  understood  that  no  one  can  be  a  sincere 
Christian  unless  he  does  conscientiously  turn  from 
every  form  of  sin  and  also  has  a  heart  which  genu- 
inely wishes  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  phase 
of  it.  This  would,  at  first  thought,  seem  to  be  the 
acme  of  a  human  soul's  attitude  toward  that  which 
we  know  as  sin,  but  we  find  upon  sober  thought  that 
there  is  a  still  higher  view  to  take,  of  forsaking  sin. 
One  is  not  the  Christian  he  should  be  simply  be- 
cause he  sincerely  seeks  to  have  sin  taken  out  of  him 
and  honestly  tries  to  turn  away  from  every  form  of 
it.     It  is  one  thing  to  forsake  sin  and  another  to  for- 


174  PEESONAL  KELIGION 

sake  it  with  the  highest  motives.  One  may  turn 
from  the  path  of  wrong  simply  because  he  sees  that 
his  doom  awaits  him  at  the  end;  he  may  turn  from 
evil  because  he  knows  he  will  lose  his  job  if  he  holds 
to  it;  he  may  give  up  sin  because  he  wishes  to  gain 
a  certain  advantage  politically;  he  may  refuse  to 
connive  with  evil  only  because  he  knows  which  side 
his  bread  is  buttered  on.  Surely  these  motives  are 
not  high  ones  and  not  one  commends  itself  to  the 
Christian  conscience  as  being  adequate.  Then  one 
may  forsake  sin  because  of  the  ruin  it  makes  of  a 
man  and  he  does  not  like  to  ruin  that  which  is  so 
precious.  He  may  forsake  sin  because  he  sincerely 
desires  to  be  good.  There  is  an  attractiveness  to  char- 
acter. His  own  sense  of  self  respect,  his  conscious- 
ness of  manly  dignity  furnishes  him  with  the  motive 
for  it.  These  are  certainly  nobler  motives  for  turning 
from  evil.  But  are  they  necessarily  Christian  ?  They 
approximate  it.  They  are  included  in  the  Christian 
motive.  There  is  however  another  motive  which  is 
most  seldom  considered  perhaps  by  some  but  is  after 
all  the  very  highest  and  therefore  thoroughly  Chris- 
tian. It  is  that  of  forsaking  sin  because  of  its  rela- 
tion to  others.  We  may  be  glad  to  have  men  forsake 
sin  for  any  reason,  but  Jesus  would  have  them  turn 
from  it  for  the  highest  reasons.  Even  personal  good- 
ness itself  is  not  a  sufficient  motive. 

The  first  person  to  consider  is  the  Heavenly  Father 
himself.  Sin  is  a  transgression  of  the  moral  law  of 
the  world.  It  is  God's  law.  He  made  it  for  the  good 
of  mankind  and  to  sustain  his  moral  order.  Sin  is 
therefore  a  disregarding,  and  sometimes  a  deliberate 
overriding  or  a  wilful  disobedience  of  that  law  of 
God  which  was  framed  in  love  for  the  protection  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MOTIVES  175 

development  of  the  human  family.  It  is  needless  to 
state  that  sin  does  affect  the  Father.  We  may  believe 
that  he  not  only  feels  deeply  the  moral  estrangement 
of  a  wayward  child,  but  that  he  actually  suffers  be- 
cause of  it.  Either  God  is  only  an  inanimate  force 
with  no  feeling  whatsoever  or  he,  as  a  Father,  has 
a  soul  and  a  heart  and  is  wrenched  within  because 
of  the  sin  of  mankind.  This  latter  idea  of  him,  we 
believe  to  be  true.  This  being  so,  man  should  for- 
sake sin  because  it  thus  affects  the  Father.  If  there 
is  any  filial  relationship  of  man  to  God  which  is  vital 
and  real,  then  this  should  be  one  of  the  very  highest 
motives  for  turning  from  evil.  Believing  that  there 
is,  we  emphasize  this  as  the  ''why"  which  should 
move  men  to  forsake  their  wicked  ways.  The  prophet 
Isaiah  (55:8)  considered  sin  to  be  closely  related 
to  God  and  Jesus  certainly  did.  We  would  do  well 
always  to  remember  it  and  all  that  it  signifies.  But 
the  effect  upon  God  is  what  it  is,  because  of  sin's 
effect  upon  man.  God  does  not  suffer  so  much  be- 
cause it  is  his  law  that  is  disregarded  as  he  does  be- 
cause it  is  the  human  family  which  is  injured  and 
disrupted.  The  fact  that  sin  is  never  limited  in  its 
effect  to  the  one  who  commits  it,  but  seriously  in- 
fluences others  in  the  human  brotherhood,  is  the  cause 
of  God's  suffering.  Sin  is  seldom  if  ever  committed 
alone.  Wrong  done,  while  it  may  disastrously  affect 
the  one  who  does  it,  touches  another  life  and  that 
life  touches  another,  until  one  is  staggered  as  he 
contemplates  the  extent  of  a  single  act  of  sin.  Whole 
generations  are  involved  in  it.  The  taint  of  one 
man's  wicked  life  reaches  down  through  centuries 
of  time.  There  are  people  living  today  who  are  strug- 
gling hard  to  overcome  the  handicap  which  was  im- 


176  peeso:j^al  religion 

posed  upon  them  by  the  generations  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  God  does  not  visit  the  iniquity  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children  by  some  arbitrary  rule 
of  ''tit  for  tat."  It  is  simply  that  sin  works  disaster 
from  one  generation  to  another.  By  the  same  law 
that  good  works  for  the  good  of  others,  evil  brings 
disaster  upon  the  unborn  millions  of  posterity.  The 
law  is  good.  Man  is  evil.  Humanity  suffers.  God 
is  pained.  Therefore  because  of  the  effect  of  sin 
upon  others  we  should  forsake  it.  This  is  a  religious 
motive. 

God  may  be  rather  imreal  to  some.  Perhaps  it  is 
quite  impossible  for  them  to  think  out  at  all  satisfac- 
torily, the  theological  significance  of  God's  relation 
to  sin.  But  there  is  no  question  whatever  about  what 
sin  does  to  human  life.  The  direful  results  are 
clearly  before  them.  All  about  us  in  the  open  are  the 
ruined  bodies,  the  wrecked  homes,  the  sad,  hollow 
eyed  faces,  the  dwarfed  minds  and  the  blighted  lives. 
The  path  of  sin  is  like  that  of  a  tornado.  It  tears  its 
way  through  human  life  and  leaves  physical,  moral 
and  spiritual  destitution  in  its  wake.  One  who  has 
seen  the  results  of  a  wind  storm  readily  makes  it  a 
simile  of  sin's  power.  The  world  presents  its  pic- 
ture of  twisted  consciences,  mutilated  souls,  stumps 
of  personalities,  barren  lives  and  aching  hearts,  all 
because  of  sin.  No  human  temple  is  too  beautiful 
for  it  to  demolish^no  noble  mind  too  great  for  it  to 
derange  and  no  soul  too  high  for  it  to  pull  down  and 
bury  under  its  debris.  This  devastation  is  far  more 
terrible  than  that  of  the  wind  storm.  Moral  collapses 
and  spiritual  deaths  are  worse  than  the  physical.  A 
mother  may  have  her  boy  brought  home  dead,  having 
been  killed  in  some  accident  while  at  work,  but  deep 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MOTIVES  1Y7 

as  her  sorrow  must  be,  it  is  almost  heaven  compared 
to  the  anguish  which  would  fill  her  soul  if  her  boy 
were  brought  home  dead  drunk.  A  father  would  a 
thousand  times  rather  see  the  fair  form  of  his  daugh- 
ter laid  out  in  the  casket  in  his  best  room  than  to 
have  that  form  alive  and  the  victim  of  vice.  Yet 
man  knows  that  his  sin  is  doing  this.  He  may  not 
see  God  but  he  sees  his  own  human  kin  thus  affected 
and  he  realizes  the  disaster  of  it  all  when  he  stops  to 
think.  Sin's  tragedy  is  written  upon  the  leaves  of 
human  life  everywhere.  There  are  few  white  pages. 
Where  is  there  a  family  that  has  not  been  blackened 
somewhere  down  the  line  by  its  soot  ?  The  effect  of 
sin  is  thus  vividly  before  him  and  he  cannot  be  blind 
to  it.  Ignorance  of  its  due  results  cannot  be  ex- 
cused. Consciousness  of  these  results  should  give 
him  a  powerful  motive  for  turning  away  from  it. 
This  should  be  the  primary  reason  for  ceasing  to  do 
it.  It  is  incomparably  higher  than  the  motive  to 
quit  sin  because  of  its  effect  upon  one's  self.  Con- 
sider this  in  the  realm  of  purity.  Here  is  a  man  who 
leads  a  girl  into  vice.  He  may  be  guilty,  as  many 
men  are,  of  robbing  a  dozen  girls  of  their  virtue.  He 
may  continue  his  course  until  he  is  diseased,  and,  in 
shame  and  remorse  because  of  what  he  has  brought  on 
himself,  cease  his  beastly  habits.  Others  are  happy 
to  think  of  the  change  for  the  better  in  the  man 
and  we  are  glad  that  the  sinful  career  has  been 
stopped.  But  what  about  the  girls  whom  he  has 
ruined  ?  Think  of  what  he  has  brought  on  them. 
And  think  of  the  future.  On  they  go.  Each  one  a 
factor  in  human  degradation.  What  shall  the  har- 
vest of  his  sin  be  ?  Only  God  knows  and  only  eter- 
nity can  reveal  it.     Conscious  of  this,  what  should 


178  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

his  motive  for  forsaking  his  sin  be  ?  The  only  one  that 
would  please  God,  or  satisfy  his  own  sense  of  right 
is  to  stop  the  dreadful  influence  of  his  life  upon  any 
more  girls.  And  this  same  motive  should  keep  men 
from  ever  wronging  any  young  women.  A  young 
man  should  look  upon  a  maiden  as  he  would  upon 
his  own  sister,  should  protect  her  with  the  same  love 
and  heroism  and  should  say  to  himself,  my  principal 
reason  for  not  thinking  of  making  improper  advances 
to  her,  is  because  I  know  what  damning  results  to 
her  soul  and  life  would  follow.  This  is  a  Christian 
motive.  He  might  refrain  from  it  for  fear  that  God 
would  send  him  to  Hell,  or  because  of  the  results  that 
would  come  to  him  in  many  ways  in  this  life,  but  the 
great  divine  motive  would  be  because  it  would  morally 
injure  one  of  the  Father's  human  family.  Man 
should  see  that  there  is  little  glory  in  ceasing  sin  only 
because  he  is  diseased,  broken  down,  incapable  of 
holding  his  position  and  on  the  road  to  ruin.  Any 
man,  even  a  fool,  would  have  brains  enough  to  think 
that  wise.  The  motive  which  Christ  would  sanction 
would  be  that  others  may  be  kept  from  moral  injury 
and  helped  toward  robust  development.  To  leave 
evil  only  because  one  is  "down  and  out"  with  a  reck- 
less disregard  for  those  involved  in  his  sin,  is  really 
damnable. 

This  has  force  also  in  the  mercantile  realm.  We 
know  that  unrighteous  dealing  with  one's  fellowmen, 
that  trickery  in  business,  that  unfairness  with  em- 
ployees, that  unfaithfulness  concerning  contracts, 
that  nonpayments  of  debts  and  all  such  things  revert 
in  their  influence  upon  the  life  and  soul  and  charac- 
ter of  the  one  who  commits  them.  They  make  it 
practically  impossible  for  him  to  feel  that  forgive- 


THE  CHEISTIA:N'  motives  179 

ness  of  sin  is  his,  or  that  he  has  any  surety  of  life 
with  God  hereafter.  This  being  true,  his  conscience 
bothers  him  and  he  feels  cut  to  the  quick  of  his  soul, 
and  he  is  convinced  that  he  should  forsake  these 
wrong  dealings  with  business  associates  and  neigh- 
bors, and  so  for  fear  of  the  consequences  to  himself 
and  the  loss  of  his  own  future  salvation,  he  decides  to 
be  a  follower  of  Christ  and  forsake  the  sins  which  he 
has  committed.  No  one  would  want  to  stop  him  in 
this  course  and  all  would  commend.  Jesus  would  no 
doubt.  But  Jesus  would  commend  him  more  and 
the  man  would  reveal  a  truer  character  and  more 
worthiness  of  salvation  in  its  widest  meaning,  if  he 
were  to  decide  to  forsake  his  sins  primarily  because 
of  the  effect  upon  those  with  whom  he  dealt.  If  he 
should  say  to  himself,  I  am  treating  them  unfairly, 
I  am  actually  stealing  something  from  them.  It  is 
within  the  law  perhaps  but  it  is  wrong,  I  am  making 
their  lives  unhappy,  I  am  scrimping  their  livelihood 
and  taking  it  to  myself.  For  their  sakes  I  will  for- 
sake this  sin.  I  do  it  because  I  have  them  in  mind 
more  than  myself.  I  do  it  because  it  hinders  their 
way  to  goodness  and  peace  and  joy.  For  the  sake 
of  human  life  about  me  I  will  cease  my  evil  and  sel- 
fish ways.  It  is  also  true  that  the  employees  in  busi- 
ness should  have  the  same  motive  in  forsaking  that 
which  is  evil ;  they  should  not  think  primarily  of 
what  they  would  gain  if  they  refrained  from  doing 
wrong  in  their  relations  to  their  employers,  but 
should  think  of  the  effect  which  their  wrong  would 
have  on  the  employers  and  their  business.  These  are 
motives  worthy  of  those  who  would  be  followers  of 
Jesus.  They  need  these  motives  to  begin  the  Chris- 
tian life. 


180  PERSONAL  EELIGIOIT 

Another  one  of  the  higher  motives  for  being  a 
Christian  is  that  one  may  spend  his  strength  for  the 
good  of  hnmanity.  As  we  study  the  Kew  Testa- 
ment, we  wonder  jnst  how  much  the  motive  of 
unseliish  service  in  the  interest  of  humanity  and 
the  Kingdom  entered  into  the  desire  and  willingness 
of  the  early  disciples  to  follow  Jesus.  We  know  that 
Jesus  constantly  reminded  them  of  the  fact  that  such 
a  motive  was  needed  if  they  were  to  be  his  true  fol- 
lowers, yet  he  was  continually  obliged  to  teach  them 
lessons  of  service  for  others  for  they  were  always  on 
the  lookout  to  see  who  was  to  be  the  first  in  his  King- 
dom and  who  was  to  have  the  highest  place.  They 
were  largely  in  it  for  what  it  implied  for  them,  we 
fear.  Today  there  is  a  humanity  which  seems  to  be 
cut  off  the  same  piece.  It  is  so  self  centred  that  it 
rejects  the  call  of  Christ  because  he  asks  something 
of  them.  It  refuses  to  consider  him  until  sickness  or 
disaster  comes.  It  is  apparently  perfectly  satisfied 
to  get  along  without  him.  In  fact  too  many  have 
thought  of  Christ  as  the  innovator,  who  was  going 
to  rob  them  of  much  they  wanted  and  was  going  to 
ask  something  of  them  which  he  had  no  right  to  re- 
quire. They  would  yield  to  it  some  day,  perhaps,  if 
by  thus  doing  they  could  secure  their  own  salvation, 
but  only  for  that  reason.  The  truth  is  that  Jesus  does 
ask  something  of  humanity.  He  calls  men  not  only 
to  forsake  their  sins  that  they  may  be  kept  from 
injuring  human  beings,  but  actually  to  keep  their 
lives  strong  and  develop  their  powers  to  their  best 
in  order  that  they  may  use  what  they  have  for  the 
good  of  humanity.  He  would  have  all  understand  that 
the  great  reason  for  following  him  is  that  they  may 
wisely  and  effectively  make  their  lives  the  surest  con- 


THE  CHKISTIAN  MOTIVES  181 

tribution  to  hiimanity.  That  is,  when  one  thinks  of 
being  a  follower  of  Jesus,  he  should  be  so  far  above 
all  thought  of  what  he  is  to  get  out  of  it  that  the 
one  absorbing  passion  of  his  nature  will  be,  I  want 
to  live  for  others,  I  want  to  make  my  life  a  power 
to  do  others  good  and  make  the  world  better  and 
therefore  I  enter  the  Christian  life.  It  is  a  real 
question  whether  a  person  can  truly  take  his  place  as 
a  follower  of  Jesus,  without  thinking  of  this  truth 
and  possessing  the  spirit  and  purpose  which  is  har- 
monious to  it  at  the  outset.  That  he  could  have  this 
motive  a  week  after  he  starts,  for  he  must  to  be  a 
Christian  then,  and  not  have  it  when  he  starts,  is 
quite  inconceivable.  The  Christ  idealist  will  insist  that 
he  must  have  this  motive  in  after  years.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  he  ought  to  have  it  when  he  begins.  This 
motive  must  be  one  of  the  controlling  motives  of  his 
Christian  life,  by  which  that  life  is  to  be  tested  every 
day,  throughout  the  years,  therefore  how  is  it  possi- 
ble for  him  to  begin  the  life  which  is  to  be  distinctively 
Christian  or  Christlike  unless  he  possesses  it  ?  To 
enter  this  life  with  no  thought  of  doing  others  good, 
no  conception  of  making  one's  life  a  gift  to  the  de- 
velopment of  human  life  about  him,  would  make  an- 
other conversion  imperative  at  once  before  a  person 
could  be  a  true  Christian.  It  is  very  true  that  there 
will  be  conversions  to  new  ideas  and  larger  thoughts 
and  experiences  of  the  meaning  of  following  Christ 
as  the  years  come  and  go,  it  can't  be  learned  and 
adopted  all  at  once,  but  this  conception  and  experi- 
ence is  so  fundamental  to  the  Christian  career 
that  some  idea  of  it  must  enter  the  mind  and  some 
passion  for  it  must  become  a  motive,  as  one  ac- 
tually  becomes    a    Christian.      This    is    a    part   of 


182  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

the  initial  conversion  because  it  is  so  essential. 
There  will  be  continual  enlargements  of  it  as 
Christian  experience  broadens,  but  the  germ  of 
the  conception  and  the  first  pulsings  of  the  passion 
to  give  one's  life  for  the  good  of  humanity  should 
be  an  integral  part  of  the  first  experience  of  becom- 
ing a  follower  of  Jesus. 

In  examining  the  cases  of  the  early  disciples  who 
responded  to  Jesus'  call,  we  find  that  they  were  asked 
to  follow  Christ  with  the  thought  of  ministry  to 
others  in  mind  and  Jesus  continually  explained  how 
vital  this  motive  was  to  his  task.  He  came  to  save 
others,  to  give  his  very  life  to  redeem  humanity  from 
sin  and  to  lead  the  world  of  mankind  to  truth,  good- 
ness and  eternal  life  and  no  person  could  become  a 
real  part  of  his  Kingdom  scheme  and  propaganda 
unless  he  had  something  of  this  motive  at  the  time 
of  beginning  the  Christian  life.  Out  from  the  mul- 
titude who  came  simply  to  secure  the  loaves  and 
fishes,  there  were  those  who  became  his  actual  follow- 
ers and  these  always  had  something  of  his  passion. 
Paul  seemed  to  be  struck  vnth  the  idea  that  Jesus 
wanted  him  to  go  out  at  once  and  use  his  energies  for 
truth  and  his  Kingdom  rather  than  against  them. 
He  who  had  been  hindering  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity by  binding  Christians  and  taking  them  to  Je- 
rusalem, now  saw  that  he  must  become  an  actual 
apostle  of  this  Jesus  and  give  his  life  to  the  Gentiles. 
This  motive  was  very  evidently  his  at  conversion.  It 
was  what  moved  him  to  become  a  follower  of  Christ. 
It  is  impossible  to  imagine  Paul  looking  upon  Jesus 
only  as  one  who  was  to  give  to  him  salvation.  I  ques- 
tion whether  he  thought  of  it  at  all.  The  record 
leads  us  to  believe  that  he  saw  himself  opposing  one 


THE  CHEISTIAK  MOTIVES  183 

who  was  the  true  Messiah  and  deliverer  of  Israel,  the 
one  who  had  come  to  do  his  nation  good  even  to  se- 
cure its  salvation.  His  Kingdom  included  the  Gen- 
tiles which  was  a  larger  idea  than  Paul  had  conceived 
of  before  and  his  soul  was  fired  to  give  his  life  to 
Jesus  that  he  might  have  a  part,  as  a  chosen  one,  in 
carrying  the  Gospel  news  to  those  in  great  need. 
Who  is  there  who  can  think  of  Paul  approaching 
Jesus  as  a  grasping  religionist  whose  single  passion 
was  to  make  his  own  life  safe?  It  is  utterly  incon- 
ceivable. He  was  the  man  of  giant  intellect,  strong 
personality,  greatness  of  soul,  breadth  of  vision,  who, 
having  a  passion  for  the  religion  of  his  fathers,  under- 
stood the  genius  of  Christ's  world  mission  and  swung 
his  whole  being  and  life  into  that  plan  for  humanity, 
intelligently  moved  by  the  master  motive  of  Chris- 
tian service. 

The  task  of  Christ  through  his  followers  is  to  make 
this  world  righteous.  This  implies  making  humanity 
righteous.  This  signifies  great  movements  of  reform, 
the  putting  out  of  every  form  of  evil,  the  sweetening 
and  beautifying  of  all  human  relationships,  and  the 
development  of  humanity  socially  and  politically  in 
ethics.  This  implies  the  setting  in  motion  of  mighty 
constructive  forces  which  shall  operate  to  this  end. 
"Where  shall  these  constructive  forces  be  generated  ? 
Somewhere  in  the  air  or  on  some  other  planet  and 
then  wired  to  us  by  spiritual  cables  ?  We  answer, 
"No."  The  forces  are  here.  They  are  those  of  the 
immanent  God.  They  are  to  be  generated  and  de- 
veloped in  human  personalities.  Jesus  came  to  do 
this  very  work  in  view  of  his  Kingdom  plan  and 
hope.  Motives  are  power.  As  human  personalities 
become  possessed  with  the  motives  which  move  them 


184  PERSOI^AL  RELIGION 

to  make  the  world  righteous,  they  become  what  Jesus 
would  have  them  be.  Therefore  one  must  have  the 
motive  to  make  the  world  righteous  in  order  to  be  a 
true  follower  of  Jesus.  How  can  a  human  person- 
ality become  a  power  in  the  ethical  world  if  he  has 
no  motive  which  moves  him  that  way.  And  if  Jesus 
came  purposely  to  do  this  how  can  one  be  a  Chris- 
tian, if  he  does  not  possess  the  motive  to  reconstruct 
the  human  family  according  to  Jesus'  ideal.  Then 
again  knowing  that  moral  forces  dwell  in  human  be- 
ings, and  that  the  world  can  only  be  made  righteous 
as  men  are  made  Christlike,  our  motive  in  following 
Jesus  is  to  become  "fishers  of  men."  But  not  to  fish 
men  out  of  the  evil  world  of  mankind  to  keep  them 
out,  but  to  draw  them  to  Christ  that  he  may  give  them 
the  same  motive  and  send  them  back  into  the  ocean 
of  human  life  to  save  others.  Our  motive  is  not  to 
take  men  out  of  their  environment  and  leave  it  to 
degenerate  still  more,  but  to  fill  them  with  a  passion 
to  change  that  evil  environment  to  one  of  goodness. 
To  make  town,  city,  state,  country,  nation  and  the 
world  what  Jesus  would  have  them  be.  This  being 
true  the  person  who  thinks  of  being  a  follower  of 
Christ  should  have  this  motive  of  laboring  to  make 
this  world  righteous  when  he  begins  his  Christian  life. 
He  should  not  come  to  Christ  simply  to  get  out  of  a 
wicked  world  but  to  go  into  it  with  zeal  and  confi- 
dence, knowing  that  to  follow  Christ  implies  to  go 
with  him  to  every  needy  spot  where  human  life  ex- 
ists. And  to  go  there  purposely  to  save  humanity  ac- 
tually and  comprehensively.  One  of  the  crimes  of  a 
professed  Christianity  has  been  the  absorption  of  the 
powers  of  the  personality  in  the  sole  aim  of  securing 
salvation  to  the  individual  to  be  experienced  in  some 


THE  CHRISTIAN"  MOTIVES  185 

future  blessedness.  It  was  difficult  for  the  early 
church  to  escape  this.  The  world  was  not  something 
to  save,  but  to  disapprove.  They  were  led  to  think 
of  it  as  abandoned  to  the  evil  one  and  the  Christian 
was  the  one  who  could  get  out  and  stay  out  of  it. 
He  who  had  much  of  anything  to  do  with  it  was  mor- 
ally tainted.  Thinlcing  only  of  escaping  it  killed  the 
possibility  of  a  passion  to  save  it.  Becoming  ab- 
sorbed in  securing  a  future  salvation  left  no  oppor- 
tunity to  take  part  in  the  task  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. Thus  early  Christianity  manifested  little  or 
no  impulse  to  improve  general  conditions  in  the 
moral  world.  The  rapid  decline  of  the  ancient  world 
in  the  second  century  discouraged  any  who  might 
have  thought  they  ought  to  hope  and  strive  for  such 
an  ideal.  We  can  sympathize  with  those  early  Chris- 
tians. They  were  surrounded  with  a  luxurious  civi- 
lization ;  all  sorts  of  dazzling  enticements  were  be- 
fore them  and  the  laxity  of  morals  made  lapses  of 
character  easily  excusable.  They  were  forced  to  sep- 
arate themselves  from  such  a  world  and  we  have  rea- 
son to  commend  them  for  it.  It  is  easy  to  see  how 
they  were  led  to  go  too  far  in  this  idea  of  separate- 
ness.  Their  new  world  was  one  to  be  inaugurated  by 
cataclysm  and  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
present  order.  That  they  were  to  be  the  means  of 
gradually  changing  it  to  one  of  righteousness,  did  not 
dawn  upon  them.  But  it  does  present  itself  as  rea- 
sonable today.  The  evolutionary  laws  of  life  seem 
to  determine  it  for  us  and  we  recognize  our  task  in 
the  light  of  them.  We  so  understand  Jesus'  hope 
also.  Therefore  our  motive  in  becoming  followers 
of  Christ  must  be  to  have  a  part  in  redeeming  this 
very  world  order  and  bringing  in  a  reign  of  peace 


186  PEKSOI^AL  RELIGION 

and  righteousness  on  earth. 

We  are  to  take  our  places  in  the  Christian  church, 
as  people  who  have  organized  not  only  to  perpetuate 
the  public  worship  of  God,  and  to  keep  the  ideal  of 
Jesus  ever  before  the  world,  but  that  we  may  ac- 
tually in  an  intelligent  manner,  serve  Christ  and 
humanity  in  the  interests  of  human  betterment  and 
the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  This  is  why  we  exist 
as  churches.  This  is  the  motive  which  should  ani- 
mate us  as  we  unite  with  the  church.  And  this  is  so 
because  it  is  the  motive  which  moved  us  to  be  Chris- 
tians. Being  Christians  and  active  church  members 
are  the  same.  We  are  not  to  begin  the  Christian  life 
as  selfish  individualists  who  are  bent  on  oiTr  own 
salvation  entirely  and  then  unite  with  the  church  to 
save  others.  The  second  is  the  logical  issue  and  de- 
velopment or  expression  of  the  first.  Therefore  the 
idea  of  uniting  with  the  church  simply  to  secure  sal- 
vation is  at  once  excluded  and  the  idea  that  church 
membership  for  service  is  different  from  discipleship 
for  service  is  also  ruled  out.  Church  membership  for 
organized  work  in  the  world  in  the  interests  of  right- 
eousness is  simply  focusing  the  individual  Christian 
motive  in  a  collective  way  on  humanity  for  Christ 
and  his  cause.  This  is  the  motive  we  should  expect 
every  one  to  possess  as  he  unites  with  the  church.  It 
is  not  a  new  motive.  It  is  the  fundamental  Christian 
one.  The  church  does  not  create  it.  It  furnishes  it 
a  proper  medium  of  expression.  Recently  a  pastor 
was  called  to  visit  a  young  married  man  of  some 
twenty-five  years  of  age  whom  he  found  ill  in  bed. 
His  illness  was  the  result  of  sinful  indulgences.  He 
found  him  in  a  subdued  mood,  sorry  for  his  sin, 
ready  for  advice,  and  anxious  for  help.     He  has  a 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MOTIVES  187 

Christian  father  and  mother  and  excellent  brothers 
and  sisters  who  are  more  than  humiliated  by  his 
weakness.  They  suffer  keenly  because  of  his  period- 
ical yielding  to  the  power  of  drink.  During  the 
conversation  the  pastor  appealed  to  him  to  think 
of  his  sin  in  the  light  of  its  sorrowful  effect  upon  his 
wife,  parents,  brothers  and  sisters  and  all  his  friends 
and  therefore  upon  God.  He  told  him  this  was  the 
primary  reason  why  he  should  be  sorry  for  it  and 
why  he  should  ask  God  for  power  to  quit.  The  young 
man  turned  to  him  and  said:  "I  had  not  thought 
of  that  before.  I  was  only  thinking  of  my  own  sal- 
vation." But  it  impressed  him  deeply.  He  said  it 
made  him  feel  that  he  must  never  do  it  again.  They 
prayed  together  and  the  room  was  filled  with  God. 
Tears  were  in  his  eyes  as  he  grasped  the  pastor's  hand 
and  he  realized  his  soul  had  responded  to  the  noblest 
and  best.  He  wanted  to  be  a  Christian  and  to  for- 
sake all  his  sins  that  he  might  be  kept  from  injuring 
others.  Time  went  on  and  the  question  of  church 
membership  came  up.  He  and  his  wife  also  revealed 
a  desire  to  unite  with  the  church.  It  was  the  pas- 
tor's privilege  to  tell  them  that  the  highest  motive 
that  one  could  have  in  confessing  Christ  in  baptism 
and  church  membership  was  to  identify  themselves 
with  the  organized  forces  of  Christianity  that  they 
might  now  labor  together  to  help  save  others  and 
make  the  world  better.  He  baptized  both  and  re- 
ceived them  into  active  church  membership.  Their 
Christian  lives  have  started  with  these  high  motives 
in  mind.  They  have  begun  in  the  right  spirit.  They 
have  forsaken  evil  for  more  than  their  own  salvation, 
they  have  become  true  and  good  for  something  nobler 
than  their  own  personal  joy  and  gain,  they  have  done 


188  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

it  all  and  have  united  with  the  church  that  they  may 
give  what  they  have  to  making  others  righteous  and 
happy.  They  are  beginning  as  Jesus  would  have  them, 
we  are  sure. 

One  very  striking  fact  is  the  evidence  which  con- 
tinually comes  to  us  that  there  is  something  down 
deep  in  humanity  which  responds  to  this  appeal.  Re- 
cently one  of  our  greatest  religious  educators  told  me 
that  in  his  purity  talks  with  men  when  he  referred 
to  the  vileness  of  some  indulgences  and  the  effect  it 
had  upon  men  physically,  they  all  acted  as  if  they 
knew  that  before  and  their  faces  gave  no  proof  that 
they  were  deeply  affected  by  the  argiiment,  or  that 
they  were  mentally  resolving  to  quit  such  sins,  but  the 
moment  he  emphasized  the  effect  of  these  sins  upon 
the  young  women  and  their  own  loved  ones  who  knew 
what  they  were  doing,  and  what  it  would  mean  to  un- 
born babes,  when  they  married,  he  always  caught 
their  attention  and  they  seemed  quickly  to  respond 
to  the  appeal  to  live  pure  lives  for  the  good  of  others. 
Not  long  ago  I  heard  Mr.  Thomas  M.  Osborne,  the 
newly  appointed  prison  warden  at  Sing  Sing,  tell  of 
the  new  regime  at  Auburn  where  he  has  been  labor- 
ing for  some  time.  It  is  well  known  that  his  prison 
policy  is  to  make  the  institution  a  place  for  correc- 
tion and  reform  in  love  rather  than  one  of  punish- 
ment in  revenge.  The  entire  plan  is  worked  out  from 
this  view  point.  Lie  also  trusts  the  men,  dismisses 
the  inside  guards  and  puts  the  men  upon  honor.  He 
establishes  self  government  and  makes  the  criminals 
responsible  for  themselves.  He  considers  the  com- 
pany to  be  a  commonwealth.  Each  is  a  part  of  the 
whole.  The  misdemeanor  of  one  seriously  hinders 
the  progress  of  the  entire  company.     Therefore  each 


THE  CHRISTIAN"  MOTIVES  189 

one  is  to  work  for  the  good  of  all.  The  motive  for 
good  behaviour  is  to  secure  the  welfare  and  blessing 
of  all.  He  told  a  remarkable  and  touching  incident 
that  occurred  at  Auburn.  It  seems  that  the  1,400 
men  were  placed  upon  honor  in  marching  to  chapel 
without  a  guard  near  them.  Each  one  was  asked  to 
treat  every  other  man  as  a  brother.  He  who  did  not, 
would  jeopardize  the  whole  line  of  men.  Men  could 
get  near  each  other  at  this  time  of  marching  as  at 
no  other  time.  One  day  an  Italian  came  to  him  and 
broke  down  in  tears.  He  said  in  the  prison  at  that 
moment  was  a  man  who  had  cut  him  from  ear  to  ear 
in  a  quarrel  and  he  had  been  looking  for  him  for 
five  years  to  "get  even"  with  him.  He  saw  him  in 
line.  At  first  thought  he  said,  "Now  is  my  time  for 
revenge,"  but  when  he  realized  that  he  would  not 
only  be  injuring  him  but  the  entire  1,400  men,  he 
said,  "I  must  not  do  it,"  and  his  anger  cooled  and  his 
heart  softened  and  he  said,  "I  will  not  do  it." 
He  said  more  than  this.  "I  will  forgive  him, 
and  never  try  to  get  my  revenge  upon  him." 
It  was  the  motive  for  the  good  of  others  that  he 
responded  to.  It  is  certainly  significant  that  a 
criminal  should  give  such  a  motive  place  in  his 
heart.  Another  instance  of  the  response  of  the  hu- 
man heart  to  the  call  to  service  in  the  interests  of 
humanity  is  worthy  of  being  chronicled.  I  have  just 
received  a  letter  from  Auburn  prison  from  a  man 
who  is  there  because  he  committed  a  crime  in  a 
drunken  spree.  He  writes  enthusiastically  of  Mr. 
Osborne  and  tells  of  the  inspiration  of  the  "Mutual 
Welfare  League."  He  is  helping  every  other  man 
and  is  as  hopeful  and  happy  as  can  be.  His  desire 
to  assist  all  there  is  really  leading  him  to  his  own 


190  PERSOI^AL  RELIGIOIT 

salvation.     The  following  is  also  worthy  of  serious 
consideration : — 

"The  committee  to  examine  candidates  for  membership  was 
in  session.  The  first  to  come  before  them  was  a  very  promi- 
nent lawyer  and  his  wife.  The  latter  had  for  years  been  the 
member  of  a  Methodist  churcli  but  had  not  transferred  her 
letter  in  the  hopes  that  some  day  her  husband  would  join 
with  her.  During  all  these  thirty  years  there  has  been  only 
a  nominal  interest  in  the  church.  The  statement  of  Christian 
experience  made  to  the  committee  was  full  of  interest. 

"Years  ago,  the  lawyer  said,  he  had  gone  forward  in  the 
Methodist  church  in  Washington  to  partake  of  the  com- 
munion with  his  wife.  From  time  to  time  he  had  done  this, 
thus,  in  a  way,  declaring  his  faith  in  Christ.  But  he  had 
never  united  with  the  church  because  it  did  not  seem  that 
there  was  anything  in  it  for  him. 

"When  the  team  of  specialists  of  the  Men  and  Religion 
Movement  came  to  his  city  he  followed  the  meetings  with 
interest,  going  on  Sunday  to  the  church  where  Raymond 
Robins  was  to  speak.  Instead  of  giving  an  address  on  Social 
Service  that  morning,  as  was  expected,  Mr.  Robins  was  pow- 
erfully moved  by  the  fact  that  he  was  in  the  pulpit  of 
a  man  who  had  written  a  book  years  ago  that  had  stirred 
him  tremendously  and  that  morning  he  told  how  God  had 
spoken  to  him  in  the  wilds  of  Alaska.  The  lawyer  listened 
to  that  story  as  he  had  never  listened  to  any  presentation  of 
the  gospel.  That  day  God  touched  his  heart  and  when  he 
went  from  the  church  he  had  found  not  that  the  church  had 
something  for  him  so  much  as  tliat  he  had  something  which 
he  should  give  to  the  church,  his  life. 

"Several  months  have  passed  since  that  Sunday.  The  im- 
pulse of  the  day  was  not  temporary.  It  has  increased  in 
power  gradually.  A  new  minister  is  now  in  the  pulpit  where 
Raymond  Robins  spoke.  At  the  close  of  the  last  communion 
service  in  the  church,  this  lawyer  of  whom  the  pastor  had 
only  heard  the  name  and  of  whose  experience  he  knew  noth- 
ing, introdviced  himself  to  the  pastor.  At  once  he  made 
known  his  decision  publicly  to  confess  Christ  and  to  unite 
with  the  church.  At  the  next  meeting  of  the  Brotherhood, 
when  the  plans  for  the  year  were  determined  along  the  lines 
of  the  Men  and  Religion  Campaign,  he  was  present  and  asked 
for  an  assignment  on  the  Social  Service  Committee.  On  the 
next  communion  Sunday  he  united  with  the  church. 

"In  the  conversation  that  followed  the  statement  of  his 
Christian  experience,  the  question   was  asked,   'What   draws 


THE  CHRISTIAI^  MOTIVES  191 

you  more  to  the  church,  the  thought  of  your  personal  salva- 
tion or  the  opportunity  to  render  a  large  service  to  others  in 
the  name  of  Christ?'  There  was  no  hesitation  in  the  answer: 
'It  was  the  call  to  service.  I  am  sure  there  are  many  men  in 
our  town  who  will  become  interested  in  the  church  when 
they  are  put  to  work  as  I  was  put  to  work  by  Mr.  B.  and  as  I 
am  now  put  to  work.' " 

It  is  the  call  to  do  good  that  awakens  men.  It  has 
occurred  to  me  that  one  of  the  surest  signs  of  a  highly 
intelligent  and  ethical  humanity  is  manifested  in 
its  reluctance  to  respond  to  the  selfish  and  fearful 
appeals  of  eternal  punishment  and  the  bold  profit  and 
loss  arguments  of  some  evangelists  and  preachers. 
When  these  are  the  sole  basis  of  the  message  of  truth 
to  mankind  and  men  sit  before  them  irresponsive  and 
dumb,  does  it  not  reveal  a  condition  which  is  essen- 
tially noble?  And  if  while  man  repudiates  these, 
he  at  the  same  time  responds  to  appeals  to  give  the 
life  in  love  and  service  to  others,  does  it  not  show 
marks  of  the  true  Christian  motive  ?  There  is  a  cer- 
tain majesty  about  the  character  of  a  humanity  that 
sits  unmoved  before  the  hell  fire  and  personal  gain 
appeal  to  be  a  follower  of  Jesus.  It  shows  its  purity 
and  greatness  in  its  silence.  On  the  other  hand  what 
a  stigma  rests  upon  hiunanity,  how  painful  are  its 
relations  of  innate  meanness  and  self  interest  in  life 
only,  when  the  higher  appeal  to  follow  Christ  is 
made,  when  it  is  asked  to  forsake  evil  and  take  up 
goodness  and  enter  into  service  for  others,  it  still 
pursues  its  profligate,  pleasure  loving,  careless  and 
indifferent  way,  apparently  totally  dead  to  any  of 
the  Master's  motives.  While  on  the  one  hand,  some 
manifest  their  nobility  of  character  by  refusing  to 
answer  the  call  to  come  and  follow  Jesus  for  what 
they  ^fl,n  secure,  on  the  other,  others  reveal  their  ex- 


192  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

ceeding  sinfulness  as  they,  in  their  cold  respectabil- 
ity, live  their  lives  of  ease  and  care  not  for  Christ 
and  needy  humanity.  We  are  led  to  conclude  that 
our  evangelistic  appeal  should  seek  to  arouse  higher 
motives  for  becoming  Christians.  There  is  a  seri- 
ous question  as  to  whether  any  man  truly  preaches 
the  Gospel  or  approaches  humanity  at  all  as  Jesus 
would  have  him,  if  he  makes  the  sum  mum  bonum  of 
salvation  to  imply  the  experience  of  individual  escape 
from  sin  and  its  penalty,  or  if  he  appeals  to  men 
in  such  a  way  that  to  enter  the  Christian  life  with 
the  motive  of  gain  to  themselves  is  the  primary  one. 
Sermons  which  continually  depict  the  danger  of 
hell  to  the  individual  appealed  to  and  which  con- 
stantly seek  to  arouse  him  to  the  consciousness  of 
personal  loss  which  sin  will  cause  him  to  experience 
both  temporarily  and  eternally,  do  not  stimulate  these 
motives  which  are  necessary  to  have,  if  one  is  to  be 
a  true  follower  of  the  Master.  It  is  the  preacher's 
duty  so  to  appeal  to  humanity  that  the  higher  mo- 
tives will  be  understood,  possessed  and  acted  from. 
Conscious  that  the  genius  of  the  Christian  spirit  and 
life  is  bound  up  in  these  motives,  and  that  the  success 
of  the  Kingdom  advancement  depends  upon  them, 
and  that  humanity  under  the  influence  of  the  spirit 
of  God  gives  abundant  evidence  of  capability  and 
inclination  to  respond  to  them,  every  Christian 
worker  in  pulpit  and  pew  should  give  time  to  the 
study  of  their  significance,  and  should  daily  appeal 
to  mankind  so  that  humanity  shall  be  taught  to  re- 
spond to  them.  There  is  no  question  but  what  the 
responsibility  is  ours.  The  Master  is  to  hold  us 
accountable  in  this  matter.  We  should  recognize 
that  dealing  with  motives  is  our  most  important  task. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MOTIVES  193 

It  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world  what  we  ask 
men  to  respond  to  when  we  call  upon  them  to  follow 
Christ.  First  results  are  not  the  greatest.  Better 
have  fewer  answer  the  call  of  our  ministry  than  to 
have  large  numbers  respond  from  wrong  or  totally 
inadequate  motives.  Remember  motives  prove  the 
man  and  make  the  world. 


CHAPTER    NINE 
THE  LAEGER  REPENTANCE 

WE  read  in  the  Gospel  record  (Matt.  3:1)  that 
John  the  Baptizer  began  to  declare  in  the 
desert  of  Judea,  "Repent  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
or  the  Reign  of  Heaven  is  at  hand."  During  one  of 
his  preaching  tours,  Jesus,  to  whom  John  was  calling 
the  attention  of  the  crowd  as  the  One  who  was  to 
come  after  him,  hearing  his  message  of  repentance 
in  view  of  that  righteousness  which  was  needed  to 
establish  the  Reign  of  God  on  earth,  came  to  him 
and  requested  baptism  at  his  hands,  thereby  confess- 
ing his  faith  in  the  idealism  of  John  and  his  willing- 
ness publicly  to  identify  himself  with  the  message 
and  hope  of  his  forerunner.  In  the  very  next  chap- 
ter of  Matthew's  record,  we  read  that  Jesus,  after 
his  temptation  to  relinquish  his  ideal  and  purpose  of 
the  Kingdom,  began  to  proclaim,  "Repent  for  the 
Reign  of  Heaven  is  near."  It  is  evident  that  repent- 
ance (a  change  of  mind  and  a  moral  right  about  face) 
was  an  integral  part  of  the  message  of  John  and 
Jesus.  That  it  was  so  vital  to  Jesus'  ideal,  is  what 
concerns  us  principally.  Through  the  centuries,  the 
Christian  church  has  considered  the  message  of  re- 
pentance an  important  one  and  exceedingly  funda- 
mental in  personal  religion.  It  has  always  had  to  do 
primarily  with  that  which  the  church  has  conceived 
to  be  sin.     Repentance  is  an  attitude  toward,  and 

194 


THE  LARGER  REPENTANCE        195 

an  action  regarding  that  which  has  been  understood 
to  be  evil.  It  is  not  a  mystical  experience  so  much 
as  a  practical  moral  one.  It  is  something  that  can 
be  seen  for  it  has  to  do  with  our  ethical  obligations 
and  duties. 

This  calls  to  the  front  the  whole  question  of  sin. 
On  the  one  hand  we  hear  some  saying  that  the  great 
trouble  with  the  world  today  is  that  people  are  losing 
their  sense  of  and  are  therefore  careless  about  sin, 
while  on  the  other  hand  there  are  those  who  would 
philosophize  it  out  of  the  world  order  entirely  de- 
claring with  emphasis  that  the  only  salvation  of  hu- 
manity is  in  the  hope  that  the  world  shall  consider 
that  it  does  not  exist  and  shall  become  senseless  to 
it.  Ultra  conservatives  in  theology  are  deeply  con- 
cerned about  the  evident  growing  tendency  among 
liberals  to  minimize  the  genius  and  awfulness  of  sin. 
They  state  that  preachers  as  a  whole  today  do  not 
preach  about  it  as  others  once  did.  They  do  not 
boldly  tell  people  that  they  are  sinners  as  did  Charles 
Finney  and  Jonathan  Edwards  and  there  is  a  ten- 
dency to  gloss  over  sins,  excusing  man  in  unwar- 
ranted pity  rather  than  condemning  him  outspokenly. 
But  this  contention  can  hardly  be  substantiated.  It 
is  true  that  most  preachers  today  of  both  the  con- 
servative and  liberal  schools  may  define  sin  somewhat 
differently  from  what  men  of  one  himdred  years  ago 
did,  but  the  intimation  that  the  Christian  pulpit  of 
this  hour  is  careless  about  the  significance  of  evil  and 
man's  responsibility  for  it,  is  wide  from  the  mark 
of  truth.  There  is  no  tendency  today  any  more  than 
ever  among  the  preachers  of  Christ  to  make  evil 
good,  but  on  the  contrary  never  was  the  pulpit  so 
true  to  Jesus'   message  regarding  it  and  never  so 


196  PEKSONAL  RELIGION 

strong  in  denouncing  it.  Sins  that  were  passed  by 
without  a  single  word  of  condemnation,  a  century  ago, 
are  now  being  scored  by  just  about  every  pulpit  in 
the  land.  Never  has  the  genius  of  evil  been  so  truly 
apprehended,  man's  responsibility  for  it  been  so 
strongly  affirmed,  and  repentance  regarding  it  been 
so  emphatically  insisted  upon  in  the  past,  as  it  is 
today.  The  ethical  interpretation  of  the  religion  of 
Jesus  which  is  so  universally  recognized  by  thought- 
ful men  in  both  wings  of  the  theological  world,  is 
demanding  this.  In  fact  the  whole  Christian  church 
is  being  aroused  to  the  subject  of  evil  anew.  He  who 
charges  the  leaders  of  the  church  of  this  day  with 
carelessness  regarding  it,  is  not  awake  to  the  meaning 
of  the  movements  of  the  times  and  is  not  conscious 
of  the  significance  of  the  utterances  of  the  twentieth 
century  pulpit.  It  may  be  true  that  humanity  itself 
has,  in  its  own  religious  and  ethical  consciousness, 
outside  of  ecclesiastical  circles  largely,  sensed  the 
meaning  of  sin  in  its  relation  to  mankind  even  more 
than  many  of  the  clergy  and  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
churches  and  has  been  able  to  see  clearly  what  was 
not  Christian  and  what  was,  quicker  than  many 
within  the  bounds  of  the  church.  It  has  therefore 
called  both  the  church  and  the  world  to  repentance. 
But  the  chiu'ch  is  holding  up  to  humanity  in  a  very 
striking  manner,  and  with  more  intelligence  than 
ever  before,  the  ideals  of  Jesus,  and  calling  one  and 
all,  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  to  repent  in  view 
of  those  ideals.  It  is  true  that  sin  is  more  sinful,  evil 
more  despicable,  and  unrighteousness  more  hideous 
than  it  ever  has  been.  Christian  repentance  signi- 
fies more  at  this  hour  than  it  has  in  any  year  since 
the  days  of  Jesus.    The  church,  through  its  able  rep- 


THE  LARGER  REPENTANCE        197 

resentatives,  is  calling  not  only  individuals  but  muni- 
cipalities, states,  and  nations  to  repent.  ISTot  only 
certain  individuals  to  quit  certain  v^ell  recognized 
vices  and  inconsistencies,  but  all  men  everywhere 
regardless  of  position  or  station,  to  turn  from  every 
form  of  sin  which  the  righteousness  of  Jesus  demands 
or  cease  calling  themselves  Christians.  Talk  about 
the  pulpit  or  church  laughing  at  sin  or  white  wash- 
ing it  over.  When  in  the  history  of  the  church  was 
there  an  age  when  she  was  so  outspoken  against  evil, 
and  determined  to  call  men  to  see  their  sins  as  today  ? 
The  spirit  of  God  is  moving  humanity  everywhere 
regardless  of  ecclesiastical  distinctions,  to  consider 
wrong  in  the  light  of  Jesus'  ethical  idealism,  and  to 
turn  from  it. 

There  is  no  happier  sign  of  a  growing  religious 
conscience  regarding  sin  than  the  evidence  which  the 
church  furnishes  that  she  herself  needs  a  new  and 
larger  repentance.  The  church  is  composed  of  people 
who  have  confessed  faith  in  Jesus,  have  accepted  the 
life  standards  of  Jesus  as  theirs  and  have  banded 
together  for  worship  and  Christian  work  in  the  world. 
These  people  have  entered  the  church  while  holding 
different  definitions  of  sin  and  therefore  of  repent- 
ance. Probably  few  have  considered  either  as  funda- 
mentally as  Jesus  did.  History  reveals  that  the 
church  has  been  guilty  of  sins  of  grievous  nature  and 
even  today  there  are  evidences  that  she  needs  a  genu- 
ine repentance.  The  popular  evangelist  begins  his 
special  meetings  in  any  city  with  two  or  three  weeks' 
effort  to  expose  the  sins  of  the  church  and  bring  her 
to  her  knees.  This  does  not  imply  that  every  one  in 
the  church  is  in  such  a  condition  but  he  is  sure  that 
enough  are  to  make  his  meetings  a  failure  unless  he 


198  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

can  bring  them  to  change  their  way  of  living.  And 
he  generally  preaches  against  the  kinds  of  sins  which 
every  one  recognizes  to  be  sin.  He  begins  with  the 
lowest  ideals  of  ethics  and  reveals  the  hypocrisies, 
duplicities,  and  indulgences  of  so-called  Christian 
people.  He  begins  at  the  a,  b,  c  of  religion  and 
Christian  life  standards  and  calls  church  members 
of  years'  standing  to  repentance.  We  are  sorry  to 
say  that  there  is  evidence  of  the  need  of  such  preach- 
ing. Think  of  it,  so  thoughtless,  so  deliberately  apos- 
tate, are  some  in  our  churches  that  there  is  a  call  for 
such  messages.  Consider  being  obliged  to  begin  all 
over  again  regarding  gross  pagan  sins  with  a  com- 
pany of  people  whose  profession  implies  that  they 
have  confessed  to  a  sense  of  sin  and  have  repented  of 
it  and  have  been  schooled  in  the  knowledge  of  good- 
ness for  years.  Many  a  pastor  acknowledges  that 
even  today  there  are  some  in  the  church  whom  the 
business  world  can't  trust  to  be  commonly  honest, 
who  have  no  scruples  about  drinking  to  excess  at 
times,  who  are  known  to  be  guilty  of  profanity,  and 
who  have  apparently  no  vital  interest  in  those  mat- 
ters which  are  distinctively  Christian.  While  it  is 
true  that  the  church  is  the  best  moral  institution  on 
the  face  of  the  earth,  yet  one  is  pained  to  think  that 
the  crudest  ideas  of  repentance  are  still  granted  a 
place  by  many  and  even  these  are  forgotten  by  oth- 
ers. The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  should  have  such  a 
clear  view  of  Jesus'  ethical  idealism  that  repentance 
would  imply  turning  away  not  only  from  those  sins 
which  all  decent  people  today  recognize  to  be  evil 
but  also  from  all  that  are  less  than  the  righteousness 
of  Christ.  One  of  the  surest  signs  of  the  spiritual 
life  and  purity  of  character  of  the  church  is  the  in- 


THE  LAEGER  REPENTANCE        199 

creasing  demand  for  a  higher  Christian  ideal  and  a 
repentance  in  view  of  that  ideal.  There  are  preach- 
ers today  who  are  constantly  pressing  their  churches 
up  to  this  idealism  and  calling  them  to  genuine  re- 
pentance in  the  presence  of  it.  The  great  writers  of 
fiction  have  given  to  us  recently  in  books  like  "The 
Inside  of  the  Cup"  and  "V.  V.'s  Eyes,"  this  same 
message.  This  is  the  reason  why  one  can  truthfully 
state  that  repentance  signifies  more  today  than  ever. 
We  are  going  on  to  a  larger  repentance  every  week  we 
live.  People  talk  about  Christianity  being  obsolete 
or  dead.  ISTever  was  it  more  alive  and  never  were  its 
principles  and  ideals  more  insisted  upon  than  today. 
We  are  constantly  discovering  new  meaning  in  the 
messages  of  Jesus.  The  content  of  his  truth  is  being 
opened  up  daily.  The  old  Gospel  is  becoming  a  new 
and  larger  one.  And  it  is  perfectly  right  and  proper 
for  the  church,  that  company  of  people  on  earth 
which  stands  for  the  truth  of  Jesus  as  no  other,  to  be 
the  first  to  consider  the  deeper  and  greater  meaning 
of  Jesus'  message  to  the  world  and  to  submit  her 
life  and  ideals  to  cross  examination  in  the  light  of 
them.  This  exposes  shortcomings,  grievous  wrongs 
and  grave  mistakes  in  her  practices,  and  demands  of 
her  a  new  and  larger  repentance,  but  it  is  what  she 
must  not  only  endure  but  actually  arise  to  and  profit 
by.  The  church  is  to  lead  the  world  ethically  as  well 
as  religiously  if  she  is  to  be  true  to  her  trust  and  she 
must  first  of  all  see  her  own  sins  and  repent  of  them 
before  she  can  call  the  outside  world  to  the  repent- 
ance which  Jesus  called  it  to  in  view  of  his  Kingdom. 
The  best  fact  about  this  is  that  the  church  is  actually 
seeing  her  sins  and  repenting  of  them.  Her  leaders 
are  calling  the  rank  and  file  of  her  membership  to 


200  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

this  experience. 

There  are  several  sins  which  the  church  is  recog- 
nizing today  that  she  once  did  not  and  the  first  one 
is  that  of  being  individually  minded.  She  has  em- 
phasized the  value  of  the  individual  so  long  and  has 
given  her  efforts  for  him  so  continually  that  she  has 
developed  a  case  of  sinful  concentration.  She  has  not 
thought  enough  of  humanity  as  a  v^^hole.  She  has  fo- 
cused her  vision  on  one  instead  of  many.  Her  min- 
istry was  not  calculated  to  help  people  together;  she 
was  not  thoughtful  of  the  common  good;  she 
was  seeking  only  to  help  the  single  person  here  and 
there  and  get  him  or  her  safe  within  the  fold.  She 
has  been  like  a  father  looking  for  his  lost  boy  and 
only  his,  being  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  all  boys 
are  the  Heavenly  Father's.  Individualism,  true  and 
great  as  it  is,  has  become  an  obsession  which  makes 
it  a  sin.  When  one  thinks  only  in  its  terms  and  sees 
only  with  its  limited  vision,  he  commits  a  sin  and 
he  should  recognize  the  need  of  repentance.  The 
Kingdom  was  not  solely  individual  and  Jesus'  re- 
pentance was  in  view  of  that  Kingdom.  For  the 
church  to  move  out  into  the  world  with  her  micro- 
scope focused  only  on  single  persons,  seeing  nothing 
but  the  possible  help  for  each  and  no  wonderful  plan 
for  all,  is  to  commit  a  grievous  sin  which  should  be 
repented  of.  She  should  keep  her  microscope  but  add 
to  it  a  telescope.  Her  sin  has  been  to  imagine  that 
her  task  was  limited  to  getting  individuals  out  of  a 
sinful  world.  To  think  socially  is  a  change  of  mind 
which  Jesus  would  have  in  every  church  member.  It 
is  a  new  conversion.  There  are  revivals  going  on  all 
over  this  world  especially  in  England  and  America 
where  such  repentance  is  being  preached  and  where 


THE  LARGER  REPEI^TANCE        201 

multitudes  of  such  conversions  are  taking  place.  This 
first  sin  leads  to  another,  namely,  indifference  to  the 
condition  of  humanity  as  a  whole.  Seeing  only  in- 
dividuals to  be  saved  out  of  the  masses  makes  one 
sinfully  careless  of  the  many  in  the  masses.  The 
physical,  moral  and  religious  condition  of  all,  is  the 
concern  of  the  followers  of  Christ.  To  attend  church, 
sit  in  fine  upholstered  pews  and  praise  God  for  his 
goodness  while  the  world  lies  in  filth,  suffers  in  pov- 
erty, stumbles  in  ignorance  and  dies  in  disease,  is  not 
Christianity.  It  is  sin.  To  move  within  the  circle 
of  the  elite  and  refined,  holding  the  skirts  from  the 
crowds  and  deliberately  passing  by  on  the  other  side 
from  those  who  are  less  fortunate,  is  evil  indeed. 
And  more  than  this,  to  think  of  and  labor  for  a  few 
whom  we  know,  and  to  answer  occasional  appeals  for 
help,  while  we  give  our  time  to  the  enjoyment  of 
life,  is  a  crime  before  God,  The  Christian  is  the  one 
who  thinks  and  feels  toward  the  world  as  Jesus  did. 
The  Christ  heart  for  the  sinful  and  needy  is  his.  His 
very  soul  goes  out  in  compassion  for  the  multitude. 
He  cannot  be  indifferent  to  them,  blameworthy  as 
they  may  be.  He,  to  be  like  Jesus,  is  to  be  deeply 
concerned  about  the  world.  The  spirit  of  taking  it 
as  easy  as  you  can  while  others  struggle  and  die,  is 
opposite  to  him.  'No  person  can  be  a  Christian  un- 
less he  takes  time  to  inquire  how  the  other  members 
of  the  world  family  are  getting  along.  His  inquiry 
must  lead  to  study,  then  to  serious  effort  to  help. 
Knowing  conditions  he  cannot  be  indifferent  to  them. 
He  may  not  be  able  to  know  about  all  thoroughly  but 
he  takes  up  one  subject  at  least,  for  instance  the  hous- 
ing conditions  in  his  own  city,  or  the  problems  of  the 
foreigner  in  our  midst,  and  devotes  himself  to  a  study 


202  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

of  such  conditions  and  a  practical  solution  of  them. 
This  is  Christian.  Not  to  have  this  concern  and  in- 
terest is  to  sin  and  it  is  sin  that  every  church  mem- 
ber should  repent  of,  manifesting  that  repentance  in 
an  actual  change  of  life  as  well  as  mind  toward  the 
masses  of  humanity.  To  feel  socially  is  to  have  a 
change  of  heart  which  merits  the  name  of  Christian 
repentance.  This  being  true,  one  rejoices  to  be  able 
to  chronicle  the  evidence  of  a  change  of  heart  regard- 
ing the  masses  of  humanity  which  is  becoming  quite 
universal.  The  church  is  taking  the  needs,  problems 
and  sufferings  of  humanity  to  heart,  repenting  of  her 
indifference.  There  is  however  room  for  more  such 
repentance,  but  the  revival  of  social  feeling  for  needy 
humanity  is  on  and  conversions  are  being  recorded 
by  the  Son  of  man.  They  are  Christian  conversions 
too. 

To  be  individually  minded  and  devoid  of  social 
feeling  leads  humanity  to  social  injustice  which  is 
a  term  to  describe  much  of  the  real  evil  in  this  world. 
One  of  our  weeklies  of  recent  date,  in  an  allusion  to 
a  certain  socialistic  preacher  of  the  extreme  type, 
printed  this  sentence : 

"One  could  not  help  feeling  sorry  that  a  man  of  such  splen- 
did ability  should  so  lose  sight  of  the  greater  good  that  he 
might  do  by  a  less  radical  and  more  rational  manner  of 
preaching  the  Gospel  of  Jesus,  who  lived  to  save  men  from 
sin  as  well  as  from  social  injustice." 

The  statement  that  Jesus  came  to  save  men  from  sin 
as  well  as  social  injustice  is  what  arrested  my  atten- 
tion. The  implication  that  sin  was  something  to- 
tally different  from  social  injustice  or  that  social  in- 
justice could  not  be  included  in  the  catalogue  of  sin, 
is  what  startled  me.     I  read  and  reread  it  in  perfect 


THE  LARGEE  REPENTANCE        203 

amazement.  I  wonder  how  many  people  as  preach- 
ers or  laymen  are  accustomed,  in  their  thinking,  to 
make  this  discriminating  distinction  ?  From  the  re- 
ports which  come  to  me  of  the  attitude  of  many  re- 
vivalists toward  social  service,  I  am  led  to  think  that 
there  are  quite  a  number  of  people  who  do  thus  make 
it.  This  being  so,  the  evidence  is  conclusive  that  a 
new  conception  of  sin  is  necessary  and  a  larger  re- 
pentance is  imperative.  Social  injustice  simply 
means  that  form  of  unrighteousness  which  is  the  op- 
posite of  the  righteousness  on  which  the  Kingdom 
of  God  is  to  be  built.  It  includes  every  sin  which  is 
not  compatible  with  the  high  ideal  of  the  Reign  of 
Heaven  which  Jesus  came  to  inaugurate.  The  rec- 
ognition of  the  evil  of  certain  gross  acts  with  a  fail- 
ure to  perceive  the  awfulness  of  the  sins  of  industrial 
exploitation  of  competitive  commercialism,  of  mak- 
ing money  unfairly,  of  demanding  exorbitant  profit, 
and  of  living  in  forgetfulness  of  others  in  the  hiunan 
family,  reveals  an  incomplete  vision  of  the  demands 
of  righteousness  which  is  so  essential  to  Christ's  king- 
dom and  therefore  a  restricted  idea  of  the  significance 
of  true  repentance.  We  are  glad  to  state  that  the 
church  is  coming  to  realize  that  these  things  are  evil 
and  that  even  the  competitive  system  is  not  Christ- 
like. There  are  men  in  hundreds  of  cities  in  the 
church  who  have  repented  of  these  sins  and  the  move- 
ment within  the  church  is  toward  the  large  repent- 
ance which  includes  them. 

Another  sin  which  the  church  is  coming  to  repent- 
ance regarding  is  that  of  diverting  the  attention  of 
mankind  to  the  lesser  things.  Intuition  and  con- 
science, enlightened  by  Christian  training,  lead  us 
all  to  recog-nize  that  the  great  things  in  life  are  right- 


204  PEESOITAL  RELIGION 

eousness,  love,  brotherhood,  faith,  service  and  spir- 
itual progress  of  all  kinds.     Jesus  emphasized  these 
as  the  essential  truths  of  his  Kingdom.     He  did  not 
make  doctrines  and  dogmas,  ceremonies  and  outward 
observances,  the  primary  facts  of  religious  life.     He 
was  constantly  cutting  in  between  these  and  showing 
up  the  great  difference.     Now  the  early  church  com- 
mitted the  sin  of  keeping  the  minds  of  those  within 
its  own  circle  largely  concentrated  on  the  lesser  of 
the  two.     And  the  centuries  since  reveal  that  the 
church  has  done  more  or  less  of  the  same.     She  has 
pressed  men  within  her  own  ranks  to  think  of  the 
importance  of  church  rites   and   ceremonies  to  the 
exclusion   oftentimes  of  other  and  more  important 
matters.    She  had  led  her  own  constituency  to  believe 
that  the  round  of  religious  life  and  duty  has  been  cir- 
cled when  it  has  traversed  the  circumference  of  eccle- 
siastical privileges  and  obligations.    And  the  Protest- 
ant church  cannot  escape  some  of  this  indictment. 
But  worse  than  this,  the  church  has  called  the  atten- 
tion of  the  sinful  and  struggling  world  to  her  creedal 
statements  over  which  she  has  spent  so  much  time  in 
militant  argument,  has  aroused  the  world  to  consider 
her  ritual  and  her  form  of  religious  service  and  has 
gone  out  among  mankind  compelling  attention  to  this 
or  that  peculiar  hair  splitting  difference  in  doctrine, 
this  essential  dogma,  necessary  form  of  baptism,  sac- 
erdotal   function,    invaluable    sacrament    and   many 
other  forms  and  observances  which  she  has  conscien- 
tiously believed  herself  to  be  the  custodian  of.     She 
has  kept  the  mind  of  man  alive  to  these  things.     She 
has  crowded  her  edifices  as  she  has  contended  for 
the  faith  and  form  she  believed  was  delivered  to  the 
saints  and  concerning  which  she  must  give  an  account 


THE  LAKGER  REPENTANCE        205 

some  day.  Who  will  deny  that  while  some  of  this 
may  have  been  necessary  and  has  been  in  the  inter- 
ests of  religious  advance,  it  has  diverted  the  attention 
of  humanity  from  the  greater  and  more  important 
truths  and  things  in  Christ's  kingdom  to  those  which 
are,  when  thoughtfully  considered,  very  secondary. 
We  may  believe  that  such  diversion  is  a  sin.  We 
Baptists  have  been  guilty  of  it  and  repentance  is 
reasonably  demanded  of  us.  This  does  not  imply 
that  we  should  discard  the  emphasis  upon  democratic 
church  order,  or  forget  the  beauty  of  baptism  as  a 
symbol,  but  that  we  should  recognize  that  these  are 
secondary  to  righteousness  and  a  spiritual  religious 
life,  and  the  keeping  of  them  in  the  foreground  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  latter  is  a  sin. 

The  churches  that  will  in  any  given  community 
keep  the  minds  of  the  people  in  a  hubbub  as  they 
bicker  between  each  other  over  differences  in  creedal 
statement,  forms  of  church  polity  and  sacramental 
observances,  setting  factions  against  each  other  in 
real  animosity  so  that  some  hardly  speak,  and  thus  di- 
verting the  people  from  thinking  of  the  essentials  of 
religion  and  Christian  character,  are  under  a  severe 
indictment  by  Christ.  They  merit  his  words  as 
found  in  Matt.  23  :23,  "Woe  unto  you,  ye  canting  pro- 
fessors and  Pharisees,  ye  pay  tithes  on  mint,  dill  and 
cummin  and  omit  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law, 
humanity,  sympathy  and  faith,"  they  are  sinners  and 
sinners  indeed.  They  were  put  there  in  the  com- 
munity to  bring  to  the  people  the  essential  messages 
and  the  true  ideals  of  Jesus'  Kingdom,  and  they  have 
sidetracked  them  in  favor  of  discussions  of  ecclesi- 
astical differences.  They  have  been  remiss  in  their 
duty.    They  have  failed  to  discharge  their  obligations 


206  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

to  that  community.  They  have  not  been  loyal  to  the 
spirit  and  truth  of  Jesus.  They  have  acted  as  if  it 
were  more  important  to  have  the  people  committed 
in  mind  to  certain  beliefs  and  forms  of  religion  than 
to  have  them  thinking  of  faith  in  God,  how  best  to 
express  love  and  how  to  live  the  truest  and  noblest 
life  together.  In  the  light  of  the  spiritual  authority 
in  religion  we  recog-nize  such  emphasis  to  be  a  sin 
and  the  church  is  called  to  repentance  because  of  it. 
Every  church  must  throw  its  doctrines  and  forms  into 
the  crucible  today,  and  let  them  boil  in  the  hot  fire  of 
human  needs.  Only  that  will  remain  which  is  vital 
to  the  religious  and  ethical  life  of  the  community. 
The  church  that  continues  to  keep  the  external,  creed- 
al  and  nonessential  on  the  top  and  refuses  to  get  at 
the  life  of  true  religion  that  all  may  partake  and 
live,  is  to  be  condemned  without  pity.  We  have  no 
excuse  for  such  a  sin.  We  should  turn  our  faces  to 
the  wall  and  cry  aloud  for  mercy  and  repent  in  the 
dust.  That  so  many  are  doing  this  is  proof  of  the 
presence  of  Jesus  in  our  midst  and  of  the  church's 
consciousness  of  his  message.  Go  through  the  West 
today,  visit  some  small  towns  in  ISTew  York  state  even 
and  see  four  or  five  little  meeting  houses  poorly 
equipped,  the  same  number  of  Godly  pastors  barely 
existing  on  starvation  salaries,  the  same  number  of 
small  companies  of  Christian  believers  (principally 
women)  working  with  might  and  main  to  keep  up  the 
salaries,  to  pay  for  the  expenses  and  possibly  to  send 
a  pittance  to  the  Heathen,  the  same  number  of  Home 
Mission  Boards  paying  amounts  quarterly  to  the 
churches  to  help  pay  expenses,  the  same  number  of 
churches  appealing  to  the  community  for  support, 
and  what  for  ?  simply  to  defend  some  peculiar  and 


THE  LAEGER  REPENTANCE        207 

special  tenet  of  faith,  or  ecclesiastical  form  or  order. 
And  all  this  time  the  thought  of  the  people  in  the 
community  turned  away  from  the  great  facts  of  hu- 
man life,  and  the  needs  of  the  community  neglected. 
The  lesser  has  absorbed  the  attention  of  the  people  at 
the  suggestion  and  even  the  demand  of  the  church.  No 
community  consciousness  and  no  sense  of  the  vitali- 
ties of  religion  among  the  people.  Every  one  dis- 
cussing church  differences  and  made  tired  of  religion 
by  the  incessant  and  diversified  appeals  which  had  to 
be  made  to  keep  up  the  various  church  organizations. 
Two  good  churches,  possibly  one,  would  be  enough 
in  many  of  these  towns.  Is  there  any  question  about 
the  sinfulness  of  such  policies?  Surely  not  and  the 
time  has  come  for  us  to  repent  in  genuine  sorrow  and 
that  repentance  is  superficial  unless  it  leads  to  larger 
thought  of  what  the  function  and  spirit  of  a  church 
is  where  preachers  are  taught,  unless  it  brings  Home 
Mission  Boards  really  together  and  unless  it  leads 
all  the  denominations  to  see  what  is  vital  in  re- 
ligion and  to  act  out  their  conceptions  in  practical 
ways  for  Kingdom  advancement  in  these  communi- 
ties. In  many  states  this  repentance  is  a  fact  and 
the  church  is  increasingly  responding  to  its  call. 

Another  sin  which  the  church  is  acknowledging 
and,  in  some  quarters,  is  repenting  of  in  sackcloth 
and  ashes,  is  that  of  spending  her  precious  time  and 
strength  on  unimportant  activities.  The  church  has 
done  an  immense  amount  of  great  good  in  this  world 
in  ways  which  are  only  to  be  commended.  And  when 
one  considers  the  fact  that  the  work  she  has  accom- 
plished has  been  done  probably  by  about  one  tenth 
of  her  membership,  it  would  seem  that  her  fair- 
minded  critic  ought  to  spend  his  time  primarily  in 


208  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

cannonading  the  nine-tenths  of  lazy  church  members. 
But  these  have  been  shot  to  pieces  over  and  over 
again.  At  least  the  pulpit  has  fired  at  them  continu- 
ally over  the  heads  of  the  good  and  faithful  people 
who  were  present  at  the  church  services,  with  a 
steadiness  and  rapidity  which  is  quite  marvelous. 
We  know  that  the  shots  have  gone  into  the  air  largely 
but  it  was  about  the  best  range  the  pulpit  gun  could 
secure.  While  recognizing  the  work  done  by  the  few, 
it  seems  a  little  ungrateful  to  point  out  any  failures 
in  it,  yet  all  service  today  turns  toward  high  objec- 
tives and  great  efficiency,  and  a  kindly  criticism  is 
not  to  be  considered  unchristian.  With  all  the  so- 
cial, philanthropic,  and  mission  service  rendered  by 
the  workers  of  the  church  which  is  unquestionably  of 
value  yet  there  are  some  activities  in  which  she 
spends  her  time  and  strength  which  are  only  second- 
ary. Afternoon  socials  and  pink  teas  may  be  pleas- 
ant and  profitable  in  a  way,  for  social  fellowship  is 
productive  of  excellent  results  in  keeping  people  in- 
terested. It  tickles  sensitive  and  thin  skinned  delin- 
quents especially,  arousing  them  to  temporary  prom- 
ises of  faithfulness  in  church  attendance  and  the  like, 
and  it  provides  a  happy  diversion  for  some  really 
good  workers,  but  is  it  the  dignified,  big  task  to  which 
God  has  set  capable  strong  women  at  in  calling  them 
to  give  their  life  talents  to  the  saving  of  humanity  ? 
What  if  the  women  of  the  church  should  conceive  that 
it  was  their  privilege  to  study  the  conditions  of  the 
children  and  mothers  in  some  of  the  foreign  tenement 
districts  of  the  city,  and  should  outline  a  constructive 
program  of  redemption  for  the  whole  neighborhood, 
establishing  model  homes,  teaching  domestic  science, 
forming  literary  clubs  and  Bible  classes  and  actually 


THE  LAKGEK  REPENTANCE         209 

taking  to  those  ignorant  and  needy  ones  the  light  of 
the  Gospel  of  love,  cleanliness  and  righteousness, 
would  not  this  be  service  worth  while  ?  Surely  the 
church  has  some  feminine  talent  going  to  waste  en- 
tirely and  other  such  gifts  being  expended  on  trifles. 
We  have  highest  regard  and  heartiest  commendation 
for  those  women  who  are  really  sensing  the  gi'eat  re- 
ligious and  humanitarian  task  of  the  church  and  are 
putting  their  very  souls  into  it,  but  we  call  the  oth- 
ers to  realize  that  it  is  a  sin  for  them  not  only  to  do 
nothing  but  to  do  the  needless  and  secondary  things 
all  the  time  instead  of  devoting  their  energies  to  the 
meaningful  service  of  human  salvation.  The  men, 
we  fear,  come  under  this  indictment  also.  The  time 
was  when  Christian  manhood  was  measured  by  at- 
tending church  services  on  Sunday,  supporting  the 
pastor  and  keeping  one's  life  unspotted  by  the  world. 
There  was  little  thought  that  the  men  of  the  church 
were  called  to  a  mighty  task  worthy  of  their  best 
manhood  and  that  they  were  to  be  up  and  at  it  if  they 
were  doing  what  Christ  would  have  them  do.  Today, 
the  Christian  man,  who  thinks,  knows  that  the  ideal 
of  the  past  will  not  do.  The  measure  of  Christian 
service  is  something  more  than  attending  church,  lis- 
tening to  sermons,  meeting  good  people  socially,  at- 
tending some  happy  function  to  drink  coffee  or  eat 
ice  cream.  Just  to  keep  men  religiously  and  socially 
revolving  around  the  meeting  house  is  not  a  sufficient 
goal  for  the  expenditure  of  the  energies  of  the  Chris- 
tian manhood  of  this  age.  The  church  has  no  doubt 
sinned  in  placing  such  an  ideal  before  the  man  of 
today.  Surely  no  Christian  believes  that  this  is  a 
large  enough  task  to  command  his  strength.  Church 
work  for  men  today  implies  at  least  the  following: 


210  PERSOI^AL  RELIGION 

I.  The  development  of  a  centre  of  religious  life 
which  shall  vitally  affect  the  life  of  the  people  in  the 
community. 

II.  The  religious  and  moral  education  of  the 
youth  of  the  community  in  Sunday  Schools  and  other 
organizations. 

///.  The  study  of  the  conditions  and  needs  of  the 
community  in  view  of  adopting  the  wisest  and  most 
effective  methods  to  secure  this  objective. 

IV.  The  application  of  the  principles  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  all  phases  of  human  life,  mercantile,  do- 
mestic, municipal,  etc.,  with  a  view  to  establishing 
a  Christian  community. 

V.  The  maintenance  of  a  well  equipped  and  effi- 
cient church  organization  and  building  capable  of  do- 
ing the  task  assigned  the  members  in  any  given  com- 
munity. 

VI.  The  launching  and  furthering  of  the  needed 
reform  measures  to  rid  the  world  of  the  saloon,  vice 
districts,  disease,  child  exploitation  and  kindred  evils. 

VII.  The  Christianizing  of  national  life  at  home 
and  all  nations  abroad.  That  is,  the  actual  endeavor 
religiously  and  humanitarianly  to  educate  the  peoples 
of  the  globe  in  the  truths  and  ideals  and  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

With  such  a  task  given  the  church,  think  of  the  in- 
efficiency of  strong  men  giving  their  time  and  limit- 
ing their  endeavors  to  attending  church  once  a  Sun- 
day, occasionally  pleasing  the  pastor  by  returning  to 
the  evening  meeting,  once  in  a  while  meeting  with  the 
other  men  for  a  social  hour  and  good  time,  or  even 
giving  a  little  occasionally  to  current  expenses  and 
missions.  It  is  verily  a  sin  for  masculine  energy  to 
be  expended  thus  as  well  as  for  its  power  not  to  be 


THE  LARGER  REPENTANCE         211 

expended  at  all.  Therefore  men  should  be  in  it  heart 
and  soul,  intelligently  cognizant  of  what  is  to  be  done, 
full  of  ideas  and  plans  as  to  how  to  do  it,  and  ani- 
mated with  enthusiasm  to  accomplish  what  the  Mas- 
ter has  assigned  in  the  most  efficient  manner  possi- 
ble. The  church's  task  is  the  biggest  project  ever 
given  to  man  to  have  a  part  in.  It  is  no  less  than 
that  of  constructing  a  Christian  Kingdom  Empire 
which  shall  have  all  humanity  for  its  field.  It  is 
building  human  life  according  to  the  ideals  of  Jesus. 
The  President  and  his  cabinet  and  the  members  of 
Congress  at  Washington  have  no  larger  one,  in  fact 
theirs  is  simply  a  part  of  the  Christian  work  of  the 
church.  The  Generals  and  their  men  in  the  armies 
of  Europe  today  are  seriously  alive  to  their  gigantic 
task.  Each  is  bent  on  saving  an  Empire.  Many  have 
righteousness  and  peace  for  a  goal.  All  believe  that 
the  work  set  out  before  them  is  worthy  of  the  best 
brain,  greatest  soul  and  noble  manhood  of  the  world. 
But  theirs  is  not  to  be  compared  to  the  service  which 
has  been  assigned  to  the  church.  Imagine  if  you  can 
the  leaders  of  these  national  armies  giving  their  time 
to  a  continual  round  of  cushion  concerts,  feasts  and 
pastimes,  wherein  they  may  lie  at  ease,  or  to  desul- 
tory advances  on  the  tag  ends  of  the  enemies'  lines 
and  the  weakest  of  her  defences  while  the  main  col- 
umns of  their  armies  were  moving  steadily  on  to  vic- 
tory. The  church  has  done  too  much  of  this.  Our 
leaders  should  tackle  the  main  business  at  hand.  The 
meetings  of  the  official  boards  of  the  churches  ought 
to  be  occasions  when  the  best  men  and  women  of  the 
membership  gather  together  in  force,  where  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  great  Christian  task  is  sensed  by 
one  and  all  and  where  consecration,  enthusiasm  and 


212  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

efficiency  are  focused  on  the  world  field,  the  problems 
to  be  solved  and  the  best  methods  to  iDe  adopted  in 
view  of  the  results  to  be  achieved.  Disinterestedness 
and  nonattendance,  with  time  spent  on  life's  follies, 
signify  sin  of  a  serious  sort.  The  movements  among 
men  and  women  in  the  last  few  years  are  positive 
proof  of  the  presence  of  this  kind  of  repentance. 
But  there  is  a  demand  for  more. 

Another  sin  that  some  in  the  church  need  to  re- 
pent of  is  that  of  accepting  the  gifts  of  Ood's  grace 
without  maJcing  restitution.  Repentance  is  more 
than  simply  turning  away  from  the  wickedness  of 
the  past,  it  is  turning  in  to  rectify  as  far  as  possible 
the  wrong  that  has  been  done.  Sin  puts  upon  every 
one  who  commits  it  a  serious  and  exacting  obligation 
and  repentance  is  only  real  as  it  conscientiously  dis- 
charges it.  Take  for  instance  the  man  who  has  been 
influencing  others  in  an  evil  way  possibly  to  that  of 
leading  others  into  impurities  or  other  forms  of 
wickedness.  What  does  repentance  signify  to  him  ? 
Is  it  enough  that  he  go  forward  in  some  mission  hall 
service  or  church  meeting  and  confess  his  sins  in 
tears,  arise  and  declare  that  he  will  do  so  no  more 
and  then  unite  with  the  church  ?  Surely  God  expects 
more  of  him  than  this.  His  sinful  influence  upon 
others  demands  of  him  a  life  given  to  make  restitu- 
tion. He  must  give  back  to  them  now  an  influence 
which  if  possible  shall  save  after  all  the  very  ones 
whom  he  dragged  down  with  him.  His  going  up  the 
hill  is  not  enough.  He  must  restore  them  also.  At 
least  he  must  work  with  might  and  main  to  restore 
them.  He  has  not  repented  unless  he  does.  Then 
suppose  another  man,  who  has  been  guilty  of  under- 
handed methods  in  his  business,  has  foreclosed  mort- 


THE  LARGER  REPENTANCE         213 

gages  on  poor  widows,  has  shown  no  mercy  to  strug- 
gling tenants  and  has  wronged  scores  of  competitors 
and  has  actually  robbed  more  than  one  customer, 
should  be  convicted  of  the  wrong  of  this,  come  to 
Christ  for  forgiveness,  promise  to  turn  away  from  it 
and  unite  with  the  church,  has  he  truly  repented  ? 
We  answer — he  has  negatively  done  so  but  not  posi- 
tively. He  has  but  partly  turned.  He  should  wheel 
clear  around,  not  only  against  the  evil  he  has  been 
doing  but  to  the  ones  he  has  wronged.  He  must  make 
restitution  as  far  as  possible  of  all  his  evil.  He  must 
go  to  the  widow  whose  mortgage  he  foreclosed  need- 
lessly, reestablish  her  and  help  her,  he  must  go  to 
those  tenants  to  whom  he  has  shown  no  mercy  and 
make  them  happy,  he  must  meet  those  competitors  and 
beg  their  pardon  and  to  those  customers  whom  he  has 
robbed,  he  must  take  back  his  ill  gotten  gain.  If  he 
cannot  find  the  ones  whom  he  had  wronged,  then, 
recognizing  that  it  was  out  of  the  community  that  he 
secured  his  unrighteous  profits  and  gains,  that  it  was 
a  common  humanity  that  he  injured,  he  must  restore 
to  the  community  what  he  took,  must  give  back  to 
the  humanity  that  is  around  him  today,  the  kindness 
and  love  and  service  which  he  refused  to  give  to  oth- 
ers. This  is  his  conscience  money  which  he  must 
take  back.  Remorse  and  regrets  over  the  past  are 
not  repentance  unless  they  move  us  to  restore  to  oth- 
ers that  which  our  sin  took  from  them.  For  one  sim- 
ply to  be  sorry  that  he  once  treated  others  wrongly 
and  not  actually  to  restore  that  which  was  theirs,  is 
in  reality  to  remain  a  thief  forever.  We  may  truly 
state  that  the  salvation  which  Jesus  came  to  give  men 
is  not  effected  unless  this  is  done.  And  when  this 
is  done  it  is  the  one  primary  thing  to  be  accomplished 


214  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

in  conversion.  The  case  of  Zaccheus  is  in  point. 
The  thing  which  he  did  was  that  which  was  neces- 
sary to  repentance  and  therefore  to  salvation.  There 
is  no  record  that  he  intelligently  subscribed  to  ortho- 
dox theological  opinions.  He  went  at  the  matter  in  a 
very  businesslike  way.  He,  the  tax  collector  who  had 
become  rich  by  robbing  men  and  women  right  and 
left  in  his  business,  who  recognized  that  he  was  a  sin- 
ner indeed,  was  confronted  by  Jesus  who  told  him 
that  he  was  to  abide  at  his  house.  We  haven't  the 
details  of  the  entire  process  by  which  this  man  came 
to  his  repentance,  but  the  genius  of  it  is  evident  in 
the  words,  "Sir,  I  give  half  of  my  goods  to  feed  the 
poor  and  if  I  have  wrongly  exacted  ought  from  any 
I  will  restore  fourfold."  That  is  he  makes  full  resti- 
tution. He  promises  to  pay  principal  and  300  per 
cent  interest  for  years.  And  in  addition  to  that  he 
parts  with  one  half  of  his  riches  to  be  used  for  the 
poor.  Jesus  then  states  to  him  in  the  presence  of  the 
others,  'Today  Salvation  is  come  to  this  house."  To 
restore  his  sinfully  procured  wealth  and  to  give  one 
half  of  all  he  possessed  to  the  poor,  this  is  what  elesus 
names  Salvation.  This  is  what  the  Master  would  say 
today  was  repentance.  It  is  more  than  beginning 
anew.  It  is  doing  our  utmost  to  make  amends  for  the 
past  and  using  what  we  have  to  contribute  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  community  in  which  we  have  done  our 
wrong.  One  wonders  if  the  church  is  making  resti- 
tution at  all  commensurate  to  the  demand  of  such 
repentance.  We  hope  she  is  becomingly  sensitive  at 
this  point.  The  church  is  also  repenting  of  her  war 
spirit  and  program.  We  are  realizing  that  these  are 
not  compatible  with  Christianity.  The  present  Euro- 
pean conflict  is  troubling  the  church  as  she  never  was 


THE  LAEGER  REPE:t^TAI^CE         215 

troubled.  She  is  passing  througli  a  time  of  serious 
examination  of  her  ideals  and  principles  in  the  light 
of  Jesus'  teaching  and  the  result  is  that  she  finds  her- 
self gnilty  of  gross  misrepresentation  of  the  truth  of 
Christ.  She  has  been  taking  over  the  idealism  of  the 
Old  Testament  with  its  racial  and  national  prejudices 
and  its  war  spirit  to  perpetuate  those  prejudices,  and 
has  laid  claim  to  a  tribal  God  as  did  those  of  old, 
forgetting  Jesus'  ideal  of  internationalism,  the  love 
and  good  will  toward  all  which  are  to  secure  it  and 
the  basis  of  true  religion,  namely,  that  God  is  the 
Father  of  all  peoples  and  we  are  brethren.  Today 
she  is  aroused  anew  to  see  the  sin  of  racial  antagon- 
ism and  also  that  of  war  as  a  method  of  settling  na- 
tional differences.  This  is  bringing  her  under  con- 
demnation. She  is  truly  convicted  of  sin  and  a  very 
large  part  of  her  constituency  is  repenting.  She  has 
already  begun  a  crusade  among  her  own  and  is  calling 
her  membership  to  recognize  the  sin  of  the  whole 
scheme  of  militarism.  A  peace  revival  is  this  mo- 
ment on  although  war  is  terribly  real  across  the  sea. 
The  mourner's  bench  is  filling  up  with  war  penitents. 
She  is  crying  to  God  to  forgive  her  for  departing  so 
far  from  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  for  making  the  soldier 
the  ideal  man,  and  the  evidence  is  that  her  repentance 
is  real.  This  is  giving  to  her  a  new  evangelism.  She 
is  preaching  the  vital  love  message  of  Jesus.  She  is, 
with  courage,  showing  up  the  sins  of  the  war  pro- 
moter, and  the  annament  manufacturer.  She  is  con- 
demning the  philosophy  of  might  that  makes  militar- 
ism necessary.  She  is  proclaiming  the  Gospel  of 
peace.  Her  evangelists  are  calling  for  converts  from 
militarism.  They  are  insisting  upon  a  repentance  in 
view  of  a  devotion  to  the  war  propaganda.     No  con- 


216  PERSOI^AL  EELIGIOE" 

versions  and  no  repentance  are  more  radical  and  real 
than  these.  There  is  need  for  the  spread  of  this  re- 
vival of  peace.  The  question  is,  can  an  individual  or 
a  nation  be  Christian  if  this  repentance  is  not  forth- 
coming ? 

There  is  also  a  demand  for  a  larger  view  of  repent- 
ance in  the  evangelistic  circles  of  our  land.  While  it 
is  very  true  that  the  evangelists  of  today  include  cer- 
tain forms  of  evil  in  their  category  of  sin  which  those 
of  years  ago  did  not,  yet  there  is  little  evidence  that 
many  of  these  present  day  revivalists  have  anything 
like  the  comprehensiveness  which  the  message  of 
Jesus  implied.  His  call  to  the  people  to  change  their 
minds  and  turn  from  evil  in  view  of  the  Kingdom 
of  righteousness  which  he  had  come  to  establish  was 
far  more  inclusive  than  the  ordinary  evangelist  re- 
veals by  his  messages  and  objectives  that  he  under- 
stands the  call  to  repentance  signifies  today.  There 
is  a  danger  of  failing  to  perceive  the  very  ethical 
principles  which  Jesus  declared  were  basic  in  his 
Kingdom  ideal.  That  is  a  miscalculation  or  a  total 
disregard  of  the  fact  that  sins  of  the  spirit  and  dis- 
position were  the  really  gross  and  terrible  sins  of 
life  and  that  the  evil  of  false  purposes  and  unright- 
eous ideals  was  the  great  sin  of  one's  being.  Then 
is  it  not  true  that  many  a  great  revivalist  denounces 
continually  the  sins  of  licentiousness,  drunkenness 
and  criminal  corruption  in  high  places  and  fails  to 
see  other  great  sins  which  human  kind  is  guilty  of? 
We  are  grateful  to  these  strong  Gospel  preachers  who 
do  call  wicked,  low  lived,  drunken  and  criminal  men 
and  women  to  repentance,  but  their  range  of  ethical 
vision  should  be  widened  to  that  of  Jesus  and  their 
call  to  repentance  should  be  coterminous  with  that 


THE  LARGER  REPENTANCE         21Y 

vision.  Sin  covers  a  far  wider  field  than  many  an 
evangelistic  preacher  has  discovered.  It  is  only  a  low 
ideal  of  the  Kingdom  that  permits  the  limitation  of 
the  message  of  repentance  to  be  staked  at  licentious- 
ness and  debauch.  To  declare  that  he  who  quits  such 
sins  is  in  the  Kingdom  before  he  repents  of  other  sins 
which  are  diametrically  opposite  to  the  principles  of 
that  Kingdom  is  to  be  false  to  Jesus  and  to  him.  The 
Gospel  preacher  who  preaches  boldly  against  certain 
well  known  gross  sins,  and  significantly  refrains  from 
mentioning  those  of  social  injustice,  does  not  deserve 
the  right  to  be  called  a  preacher  of  righteousness  or 
an  announcer  of  the  message  of  Jesus.  He  may  be 
ever  so  orthodox  in  his  theology  but  that  does  not 
make  him  true  to  Jesus.  The  world  needs  to  have  its 
attention  called  to  the  sin  of  negativeness.  Many 
men  and  women  may  be  above  the  grosser  forms  of 
evil  and  may  even  be  free  from  the  intolerable  sins 
of  injustice  which  have  been  mentioned,  for  which 
we  are  truly  grateful.  We  would  commend  them 
highly  for  the  high  standard  of  life  which  they  have 
come  to.  But  their  lives  should  be  rightly  interpreted 
in  the  light  of  the  full  expectations  of  Jesus  Christ. 
They  are  good  but  far  from  what  they  ought  to  be. 
Until  something  more  is  added  to  them,  they  are 
sadly  negative.  These  people  are  what  they  are  be- 
cause of  what  they  are  not.  They  have  a  compla- 
cency and  an  undisturbed  satisfaction  that  they  have 
come  to  about  the  highest  ideal  of  manhood  and  wom- 
anhood known  to  man  simply  because  they  do  not 
commit  the  sins  of  the  vile  sort  and  do  not  plan  and 
execute  acts  of  gross  injustice.  But  when  confronted 
with  demands  of  Jesus  for  a  life  of  aggressive  good- 
ness, for  actual  devotion  to  the  great  tasks  of  his 


218  PEESOiN-AL  EELIGIOlsr 

Kingdom  enterprise,  for  continual  sacrifice  and  ser- 
vice in  the  interests  of  human  development,  they  re- 
veal a  lack  which  is  strikingly  great  and  which  consti- 
tutes a  sin  to  be  repented  of.  Glad  as  the  Master  is 
that  they  have  refrained  from  sin  in  its  lowest  forms 
and  that  they  have  not  wickedly  planned  evil  against 
their  brethren,  he  asks  them  in  all  seriousness,  what 
positive  contributions  are  you  making  to  the  better- 
ment of  the  world,  what  real  interest  are  you  mani- 
festing in  humanity  about  you,  and  what  actual  tasks 
relative  to  world  righteousness  are  you  seriously 
grasping  and  moving  on  to  completion  ?  With  such 
questions  to  answer,  they  should  quickly  recognize 
the  sin  of  negativeness  and  the  demand  for  a  re- 
pentance in  view  of  it.  With  so  much  needed  to  be 
done,  this  sin  looms  up  large.  The  only  repentance 
regarding  it  which  will  do,  implies  a  right  about 
face  from  apathy,  a  will  to  do  what  Christ  wants 
done,  a  definite  alinement  with  the  forces  that  make 
for  righteousness  in  the  world,  membership  in  the 
church,  and  activity  in  the  interests  of  humanity  as 
strength  and  time  permit.  This  is  a  sin  and  a  re- 
pentance which  twentieth  century  evangelism  will  of 
necessity  recognize  and  deliver  its  message  concern- 
ing. It  is  something  to  preach  about  with  a  view  to 
conversions.  The  change  from  the  negative  to  the 
positive  is  just  the  conversion  that  a  certain  class  of 
people  must  have  to  be  Christians.  Their  attention 
should  be  held  to  it. 

This  makes  plain  the  fact  that  it  is  only  as  one  in- 
telligently perceives  the  Kingdom  objective  of  Jesus 
and  understands  the  social  righteousness  which  that 
objective  implies,  that  he  comes  to  realize  the  mean- 
ing of  sin  and  the  repentance  which  Jesus  called  all 


THE  LARGER  REPENTANCE         219 

men  to.  The  spirit  does  not  automatically  give  to 
the  mind  and  conscience  of  the  preacher  or  layman 
the  full  thought  and  sense  of  what  this  sin  and  re- 
pentance imply.  There  must  be  thoughtful  and 
prayerful  study  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  in  the 
light  of  his  ideal.  No  man  can  preach  about  sin 
or  repentance  unless  this  is  done.  He  must  have  a 
true  view  of  the  great  religious  and  ethical  work 
Jesus  came  to  do.  He  must  understand  just  what  the 
principles  and  spirit  of  the  Kingdom  are.  He  must 
school  himself  in  the  heart  life  of  the  Master  as  he 
looked  out  upon  humanity  and  saw  it  tossed  to  and 
fro.  He  must  grasp  the  essential  thing  he  was  after. 
He  must  see  with  him  on  the  mount  of  vision  what 
would  fit  into  that  Kingdom  and  what  would  not. 
In  the  light  of  this  vision  he  will  know  what  is  sin 
and  what  man  must  repent  or  turn  away  from,  if  he 
is  to  be  a  true  follower  of  Jesus  and  have  an  actual 
place  in  that  Kingdom. 

The  call  to  the  preacher  today,  be  he  pastor  or 
evangelist,  is  to  recognize  this  larger  repentance 
which  Jesus  demands  of  church  members  and  people 
outside  of  the  church  also,  and  to  call  men  everywhere 
to  it.  No  man  is  a  true  prophet  of  God,  no  man 
really  preaches  the  message  of  Jesus  and  no  man 
deals  honestly  with  humanity  who  does  not  frankly, 
yet  kindly,  declare  the  genius  and  make  plain  the 
scope  of  this  larger  repentance.  It  will  take  consid- 
erable courage  to  do  it,  it  will  demand  moral  hero- 
ism of  the  highest  type,  it  may  cause  some  suffering 
at  heart  and  send  more  than  one  to  a  martyr's  death, 
but  it  must  be  done  if  we  are  to  be  loyal  to  Jesus,  if 
man  is  truly  to  be  saved  and  if  the  actual  Kingdom 
of  righteousness  and  justice  is  to  be  established  among 


220  PEKSOIsrAL  RELIGION 

men.  Let  every  evangelist  know  that  his  "sawdust 
trail"  is  mockery,  if  those  who  walk  its  way  toward 
the  repentance  he  asks  them  to,  do  not  understand 
the  expectation  of  the  Master  of  one  who  turns  away 
from  evil  and  to  him.  We  commend  his  expose  of  the 
grosser  forms  of  evil,  his  call  to  purity  and  temper- 
ance, and  every  insistence  upon  genuineness  of  living 
which  he  makes  but  we  still  declare  that  no  repent- 
ance is  deep  enough  and  wide  enough  that  does  not 
call  one  and  all,  church  members  and  everyone,  to  the 
highest  thought  of  Christ  for  men.  This  business 
that  we  are  in  of  working  with  Christ  to  establish  his 
Kingdom  among  men  cannot  admit  of  any  superficial 
message.  We  must  preach  something  larger  than  a 
juvenile  repentance.  We  are  dealing  with  men  deeply 
and  permanently — not  simply  to  arouse  them  to  tears 
or  to  build  up  an  ecclesiastical  superstructure  in  hu- 
manity. We  know  that  men  are  not  the  Christians 
that  Jesus  would  have  them  be  and  his  Kingdom  is 
not  being  established  unless  men  repent  thus  genu- 
inely and  largely.  Therefore,  away  with  efforts  to- 
ward hasty  and  superficial  results,  away  with  playing 
to  galleries  or  appealing  to  the  Vox  populi,  or  any- 
thing else  less  than  clear,  intelligent.  Christlike  deal- 
ing with  humanity  in  the  interests  of  its  thorough 
repentance  and  salvation  and  the  building  solidly  of 
that  Kingdom  of  righteousness  which  Jesus  came  to 
make  real  among  men. 


CHAPTER    TEN 
SOUL  WINNIInTG  and  LIFE  WINNING 

AN  examination  of  the  life  of  the  church  today 
reveals  a  wide  range  of  activities.  As  the 
church  advances,  she  broadens  the  field  extending  her 
ministry  along  many  avenues  of  human  activity  and 
into  every  place  where  there  is  human  need.  There 
was  a  time  when  she  limited  her  service  almost  en- 
tirely to  what  was  styled  "soul  saving  work."  She 
placed  all  the  emphasis  on  individual  salvation,  con- 
sidering her  one  task  to  be  that  of  saving  sinners  from 
future  penalty  of  sin.  She  measured  her  preachers 
by  their  ability  to  preach  so  that  conversions  would 
occur  at  every  public  meeting,  and  prayed  and  labored 
only  for  special  outpourings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and 
revival  seasons  when  scores  and  hundreds  would  be 
swept  into  the  church.  The  deliberate  limitation  of 
her  ministry  largely  to  this  revival  work  was  because 
of  an  erroneous  conception  of  her  task  and  a  failure 
to  appreciate  the  breadth  of  her  message.  Today 
she  uses  her  energies  in  all  forms  of  humanitarian 
endeavor;  emphasizes  education,  engages  in  reform, 
and  in  righteous  legislation;  and  gives  her  time  and 
talents  to  anything  and  everything  which  will  benefit 
humanity,  while  she  fights  strenuously  all  enemies  of 
human  life.  This  leads  us  to  consider  what  place 
there  is  in  her  ministry  for  that  definite  work  of 
"soul  winning"   or   evangelism.      In   some  quarters 

221 


222  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

there  does  not  seem  to  be  much  room  for  it.  There 
are  types  of  evangelism  which  should  be  forgotten ; 
messages  which  ought  never  to  be  preached  and  meth- 
ods which  should  never  be  used;  but  this  does  not 
warrant  our  tabooing  all  efforts  toward  winning  indi- 
viduals to  Christ.  With  a  better  understanding  of 
the  essential  characteristics  of  evangelism,  it  may  as- 
sume its  proper  place  in  the  ministry  of  every  church 
of  Christ,  and  easily  be  correlated  to  all  other  ac- 
tivities. Recognizing  this,  the  question  before  us  just 
now  is,  what  does  it  really  signify  to  win  another  to 
Christ  ?  When  is  an  individual  truly  won  to  Christ  ? 
We  use  the  expression  as  if  the  meaning  was  per- 
fectly clear  to  those  who  are  seeking  to  win  and  to 
those  who  may  be  won.  But  it  is  not.  There  are 
many  versions  of  this  objective.  We  naturally  turn 
to  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament  to  find  what  it  im- 
plied in  the  days  of  Jesus  and  his  immediate  fol- 
lowers. 

The  Jewish  background  of  this  record  reveals  a 
national  faith  and  hope.  The  people  believed  in  God 
more  or  less  and  were  looking  for  a  deliverer  sent 
from  him  who  would  save  the  nation  out  of  the  hands 
of  its  enemies  and  give  them  political  independence 
and  freedom.  Jesus  was  to  come  to  save  Israel  even 
if  their  ideas  of  deliverance  were  totally  different 
from  his.  John  came  on  to  the  scene  announcing  his 
coming.  Jesus  was  born  and  the  religiously  inclined 
people  from  what  they  heard  of  him,  wondered  if  he 
was  the  real  deliverer  of  their  nation.  Later  he  went 
out  from  his  home  and  began  his  public  ministry,  de- 
claring his  moral  and  religious  message  to  one  and 
all.  He  commanded  attention,  aroused  interest,  stim- 
ulated inquiry.     Their  one  question  was.  Is  he  the 


SOUL  WINNING  AND  LIFE  WINNING    223 

Messiah,  namely,  the  deliverer  of  Israel?  The  re- 
ligious leaders  of  the  day  scouted  the  idea,  multi- 
tudes who  saw  his  marvelous  works  thought  that  he 
must  be,  for  who  could  do  what  he  did  unless  he  was  ? 
Some  became  convinced  that  he  surely  was  the  one 
for  whom  they  were  looking,  declaring  that  his  words 
and  acts  gave  proof  that  Simeon's  prophecy  concern- 
ing him  was  quite  correct,  and  a  few  accepted  him  as 
such  and  became  his  avowed  followers.  These  were 
the  first  ones  of  whom  it  might  be  said,  ''they  were 
won  to  Christ."  To  them  it  therefore  implied  a  con- 
viction that  he  was  the  promised  Messiah  sent  to  de- 
liver their  nation.  The  record  does  not  reveal  that 
at  first  it  signified  any  larger  conception. 

The  distinction  between  those  who  were  won  to 
him  and  those  who  were  not  was  that  the  former  be- 
lieved he  was  the  Messiah  of  Israel  and  the  others  did 
not.  It  was  this  faith  that  became  the  incentive  for 
them  to  go  out  and  win  the  people  about  them  to 
Jesus  and  others  were  won  to  Christ  as  they  came  to 
the  same  belief  of  his  Messiahship  which  they  held. 
Take  the  familiar  story  of  Philip  and  Nathaniel  as 
found  in  John  1:43-51.  Philip  who  had  come  to 
believe  in  Jesus'  Messiahship  went  to  seek  out  his 
friend  Nathaniel  and  to  ask  him  to  come  and  con- 
sider Jesus'  right  to  that  claim  himself.  At  first, 
Nathaniel  who  heard  that  Jesus  came  from  Nazareth 
refused  to  credit  his  Messiahship,  but  upon  meeting 
Jesus  and  talking  with  him,  he  was  led  to  declare  his 
faith  in  him  as  the  deliverer,  yea  verily,  the  King  of 
Israel.  It  is  very  difiicult  for  us  to  tell  all  that  this 
signified  to  him,  but  the  evidence  plainly  is,  that  for 
Nathaniel  to  be  won  to  Jesus  implied  only  that  he 
was  won  to  the  truth  that  Jesus  was  the  coming  de- 


224  PERSO^-AL  RELIGION 

liverer  of  Israel.  This  is  but  a  sample  case  of  many 
in  the  New  Testament  and  practically  every  one  of 
them  implies  that  those  who,  from  Judaism,  were 
won  to  Jesus,  were  led  simply  to  believe  more  or  less 
in  his  Messiahship.  And  those  who  won  them  were 
satisfied  that  this  was  the  significance  of  being  won  to 
Christ.  There  was  much  added  as  the  centuries  went 
by,  but  the  first  test  of  being  won,  was  faith  in  Jesus' 
Messiahship.  Connected  with  this  faith  were  apoca- 
lyptic hopes  which  Jesus  seemed  to  encourage  (at 
least  the  record  states  that  he  did),  and  the  genius  of 
being  won  to  him  in  those  days  of  his  early  followers 
was  faith  in  his  Messiahship  or  the  acceptance  of  him 
as  the  great  God-sent  deliverer  of  the  Jewish  nation. 
This  also  includes  some  religious  and  ethical  prepa- 
ration on  the  part  of  those  who  believed  in  him.  John 
and  Jesus  both  emphasized  it. 

When  the  followers  of  Jesus  heeded  his  command 
to  go  into  all  the  world,  that  is,  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  Roman  Empire,  to  preach  his  mes- 
sage and  to  seek  to  win  others  to  him,  they  found  that 
a  different  conception  of  their  task  was  forced  upon 
them.  What  did  the  Roman  and  Greek  world  care 
for  the  distinctive  beliefs  and  hopes  of  a  peculiar  sect 
of  the  Semitic  people,  who  had  arisen  from  nomadic 
and  tribal  life  away  in  the  east  and  were  now  occupy- 
ing only  a  small  province  of  the  Empire  in  Palestine  ? 
These  ambassadors  of  Christ  would  find  no  such  se- 
cret hopes  of  a  national  deliverer  as  their  own  people 
possessed,  which  would  form  a  solid  basis  for  re- 
sponse to  their  appeal.  Instead  they  would  find 
people  devoted  to  their  own  gods,  accepting  the 
philosophies  of  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle  and  others 
and  would  no  doubt  resent  any  intrusion  into  their 


SOUL  WIlSTISriNG  AND  LIFE  WINNING    225 

religious  thoughts  and  life.  But  to  the  whole  world 
thej  must  go  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  winning 
men  to  Christ.  This  was  also  very  difficult  for  them 
from  the  standpoint  of  religious  pride.  These  Jew- 
ish followers  of  Christ  looked  with  more  or  less  dis- 
dain upon  those  outside  of  their  nation  and  this  con- 
viction and  feeling  had  to  be  overcome  before  they 
could  even  think  of  the  work  of  winning  others  with 
any  degree  of  satisfaction  and  pleasure.  The  spirit 
of  God  prepared  Peter  by  giving  him  the  vision  and 
also  the  experience  with  Cornelius,  as  recorded  in  the 
tenth  of  Acts.  Paul  was  also  made  ready  for  the 
great  task  of  winning  the  Gentiles  by  special  visions. 
So  that  they  were  prepared  to  approach  the  people 
of  the  Roman  world  intelligently  with  the  message 
of  Jesus.  Then  the  spirit  of  God  was  preparing  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  the  people  outside  of  their  own 
land.  So  that  everything  was  ready  to  make  the  ap- 
peal to  one  and  all  everywhere  to  consider  Christ  and 
be  won  to  him.  Into  the  Gentile  cities  they  went, 
they  told  their  story,  they  upheld  Jesus  and  the  rec- 
ord shows  that  many  believed.  In  Ephesus,  Corinth, 
Athens,  and  even  Rome  itself,  people  were  actually 
won  to  Jesus  Christ,  so  the  record  reads.  But  no  one 
imagines  that  they  had  exactly  the  same  idea  about 
it  that  was  in  the  minds  of  the  Jews. 

And  could  we  have  been  at  Athens  with  Paul,  we 
would  have  heard  a  very  different  presentation  of 
Christ  in  the  synagogue  to  the  Judeans  than  the  one 
he  gave  to  the  Stoics  and  philosophers  on  Mars  hill. 
To  the  first  he  traced  the  religious  history  of  the 
Jewish  people  and  the  evidence  of  God's  special  care 
of  them  as  a  nation  throughout  the  centuries,  and  his 
great  gift  of  a  Messiah  in  Jesus  Christ  and  their 


226  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

privilege  to  believe  him  to  be  such.  To  the  second, 
he  spoke  as  the  broad  minded  religious  philosopher, 
in  a  very  different  terminology,  declaring  that  the 
God  whom  they  worshipped  in  ignorance  was  his  God 
and  he  had  come  to  proclaim  him  as  the  true  God 
to  them.  That  he  made  the  universe,  gave  to  all  men 
life,  was  the  God  of  all  nations,  and  in  him  all  men 
lived  and  moved  and  had  their  being  and  that  this 
God  had  been  divinely  revealed  to  them  in  the  man 
Jesus.  He  did  not  ask  them  to  think  of  him  in 
the  same  way  that  he  asked  the  Jews  in  the  same 
city  to  consider  him,  but  he  sought  nevertheless  to 
win  both  the  Judeans  and  the  Pagan  Athenians  to 
the  same  Christ.  The  Jews  would  find  in  him  their 
promised  Messiah  and  the  Gentiles  would  find  in  him 
the  truth  about  the  God  whom  many  were  so  super- 
stitiously  worshipping.  In  both  cases  they  would  be 
won  to  Christ.  This  gives  us  some  idea  of  the 
breadth  of  mind  we  must  have  about  the  subject  of 
winning  men  to  Jesus  as  we  think  of  the  whole  world 
field. 

Nearly  two  thousand  years  have  gone  since  then, 
there  are  still  followers  of  Christ  in  the  world  and 
they  are  continuing  the  same  work  of  winning  others 
to  Christ.  We  are  concerned  about  the  significance  of 
this  task  today.  We  know  that  we  are  living  in  an 
age  of  remarkable  advance  over  the  early  Jewish  and 
Pagan.  Knowledge  has  increased  in  every  depart- 
ment of  life.  Religious  ideas  have  broadened  and 
have  been  wonderfully  clarified.  The  idea  of  a  Mes- 
siah who  will  give  to  the  Jews  a  national  independ- 
ence and  life  is  not  alive  to  any  great  extent,  the 
Pagan  world  is  no  more,  the  Heathen  world  is  aroused 
to  a  new  religious  consciousness  and  Christianity  is 


SOUL  WINNING  AND  LIFE  WINNING    227 

nominally  the  religion  of  himdreds  of  millions  of  the 
people  of  the  earth.  We  are  at  this  hour  seeking  to 
win  Jews,  Heathen,  and  people  under  direct  Chris- 
tian influence,  to  Christ  and  the  inquiry  concerning 
the  actual  meaning  of  winning  another  to  Christ  is 
exceedingly  pertinent.  What  are  we  really  trying 
to  do?  Can  we  reasonably  expect  to  make  Jesus 
Christ  appealing-  to  all  races  regardless  of  religious 
ideas  and  prejudices  ?  Can  we  approach  the  Roman- 
ist and  Protestant,  the  indifferent  and  anxious,  the 
religious  and  irreligious,  the  broad  minded  and  the 
narrow  minded,  the  literalist  and  the  spiritualist,  the 
philosopher  and  the  practical  man  of  affairs  and  ex- 
pect to  win  each  to  Jesus  ?  We  answer,  ''Yes." 
There  will  be  many  view  points  to  make  Christ  at- 
tractive from  in  this  age,  even  more  than  in  the  days 
of  Paul,  but  no  one  need  think  that  the  task  is  im- 
practical or  the  labor  useless. 

SOUL    WINNING 

The  word  "soul"  in  the  expression  "soul  winning" 
has  been  ignorantly  interpreted.  We  have  reit- 
erated the  sentence  of  the  writer  in  Proverbs,  "He 
that  winneth  souls  is  wise,"  without  much  thought 
as  to  just  what  a  soul  is.  To  most  people  it  has 
been  that  part  of  a  person  which  is  to  exist  here- 
after. Therefore  soul  winning  has  been  largely  an 
activity  in  the  interest  of  eternity.  But  regardless 
of  limited  ideas  of  the  soul,  there  is  a  truth  in  "soul 
winning"  which  needs  to  be  more  fully  recognized. 
We  may  properly  apply  the  term  to  the  essential 
person  himself.  It  should  signify  the  spiritual  centre 
of  the  personality.     Thus  soul  winning  implies  call- 


228  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

ing  the  vital  part  of  the  h-uman  being  out,  and  win- 
ning that  part  to  Christ ;  it  means  attaching  the 
real  self  of  the  person  to  Christ.  Winning  people 
to  him  means  winning  the  souls  of  the  people  or  the 
essential  deepest  nature  of  their  personalities.  This 
is  the  important  result  to  secure.  Upon  it  depends 
all.  Without  it,  Christian  work  is  a  superficial  busi- 
ness. The  person  himself  is  to  be  won  to  Christ 
himself.  We  may  use  the  terms  Christ,  Lord  and 
Jesus  interchangeably  when  thoughtfully  considered. 
He  who  is  won  to  Jesus  is  won  to  Christ  and  to  God. 
Paul  in  2  Corinthians  5th  chapter,  uses  the  words 
Christ  and  Lord  in  this  sense.  Without  doubt  he 
also  had  some  reference  to  the  historical  Jesus.  The 
Christ  conception  of  the  theologian  may  be  larger 
than  the  historical  Jesus  and  greater  than  any  human 
incarnation,  but  that  does  not  forbid  one  associating 
Jesus  with  it  in  its  fulness.  Let  Jesus  be  to  us  the 
one  who  makes  real  to  us  the  great  spiritual  and 
eternal  Presence,  God.  The  very  Soul  of  the  uni- 
verse. Then  let  each  one  realize  something  of  the 
truth  that  all  souls  have  come  from  him  and  live  and 
move  in  him.  Following  this  logically  is  the  idea 
that  as  men  are  won  to  Jesus  they  are  brought  into 
conscious  fellowship  with  the  great  Soul  of  all  life, 
our  God  and  Father.  Probably  the  Pagans  on  Mars 
Hill  would  have  understood  this  far  better  than  the 
Jews.  And  if  they  did  realize  the  deep  spiritual 
significance  of  accepting  Christ,  they  knew  more  of 
vital  religion  than  did  these  Jews  who  simply  re- 
ceived him  as  their  external  Messianic  deliverer.  It 
was  the  ditterence  between  the  spiritual  and  the  mate- 
rial. We  today  have  the  privilege  of  winning  the 
Jews  to  receive,  in  the  historic  Jesus,  the  one  who 


SOUL  WINNING  AND  LIFE  WINNING    229 

came  to  lead  them  into  spiritual  and  moral  deliver- 
ance both  as  individuals  and  as  a  nation,  and  the 
heathen  to  receive  him  as  the  manifestation  of  the 
eternal  Soul  of  the  universe,  and  every  one,  regardless 
of  race  or  creed,  everywhere,  to  know  through  him, 
the  soul  touch  of  the  infinite  Father,  who  is  over  all. 
This  is  genuine  soul  winning.  This  is  getting  the 
heart  of  man  into  that  relationship  to  the  Spiritual 
Centre  of  all  life  which  is  indispensable  to  religious 
and  moral  world  progress.  This  is  winning  human- 
ity to  Christ.  No  person  is  really  won  to  Christ 
until  the  inner  "soul"  where  motives  are  made,  aspi- 
rations are  born,  incentives  are  developed,  and  pur- 
poses are  framed,  is  vitally  allied  to  the  Soul  of  all 
spiritual  life  and  moral  dynamics.  Time,  energy, 
and  talents  spent  in  an  honest  endeavor  to  reach  the 
depths  of  human  personality  with  the  message  of 
Jesus  Christ,  are  never  wasted.  There  is  no  work 
more  essential  to  humanity  than  this.  Nothing 
should  obscure  it.  Out  of  the  soul  come  the  issues 
of  life. 

LIFE   WINNING 

But  after  all  it  is  the  life  that  proves  the  winning 
of  the  soul.  Soul  winning  without  life  winning  is 
impossible.  Life  is  the  objective  of  all  heart  wooing 
in  religion.  The  life  cannot  be  separated  from  the 
soul  or  the  essential  self.  We  are  sent  to  win  living 
humanity.  To  win  others  while  they  live  here  and 
now.  A  famous  preacher  stirred  by  the  great  theme 
of  salvation  through  Jesus,  once  asked  every  one  in 
his  great  audience  to  repeat  after  him  the  matchless 
word,    "Jesus,"    and   with   one   mighty   shout   they 


230  PERSONAL  EELIGION 

echoed  "Jesus."  Then  he  asked  all  who  could  in 
heart,  to  repeat'  after  him  the  two  words,  "My  Jesus," 
but  on  this  many  of  the  great  multitude  could  not 
open  their  lips. 

To  be  won  to  Jesus  so  that  a  person  can  from  the 
heart,  in  very  truth,  state  "he  is  my  Jesus"  implies 
not  only  that  one  has  accepted  him  with  all  that  he 
represents  of  divine  grace  and  love,  into  the  soul,  but 
also  signifies  that  the  life  has  become  identified  with 
him  and  all  that  he  stands  for.  Everyone  who  thinks 
deeply  and  to  whom  religious  confessions  mean  what 
they  should,  hesitates  to  make  this  statement.  It 
leads  such  to  ask  many  questions.  It  turns  the  search 
light  on  the  life  and  exposes  gi'eat  dark  discrepancies 
between  what  Jesus  lived  for  and  what  we  do.  We 
feel  it  is  hypocritical  for  us  to  say,  or  even  to  lead 
any  one  to  infer,  that  we  have  been  won  to  Him, 
unless  we  can  find  some  evidences  in  our  actual  liv- 
ing, that  we  are  what  he  would  have  us  be.  Being- 
won  to  Christ  is  something  far  more  than  sighing 
over  past  failure,  or  shedding  tears  because  of  moral 
collapses,  or  making  good  resolutions,  or  accepting 
the  spiritual  ministries  of  the  Lord.  It  is  placing 
the  whole  life  under  his  direction,  making  Christian- 
ity synonymous  with  living  truly  and  nobly  and  lin- 
ing up  one's  entire  earthly  career  with  his  will  for 
us.  And  no  person  is  won  to  Jesus  unless  this  is 
true  of  him.  Some  lives  are  never  won.  Some  only 
partially  won.  Some  largely  won  and  some  almost  en- 
tirely won.  But  no  one  is  the  Christian  he  should 
be  until  all  of  his  life  is  won.  The  test  of  Christian- 
ity is  thus  in  the  life.  This  makes  life  winning  after 
all  the  supreme  goal  of  the  messengers  of  the  Master. 
We  as  ambassadors  of  Christ  are  to  think  of  our- 


SOUL  WINNIITG  AND  LIFE  WUSTNIITG    231 

selves  as  life  winners.  The  fact  that  the  person  won 
to  Jesus  is  to  ''leave  the  low  vaulted  past"  that  he 
is  to  forsake  all  forms  of  heinous  sins  and  live  above 
the  animal,  criminal  and  the  brute,  that  he  is  won 
only  as  he  does  turn  definitely  away  from  this,  is 
quickly  recognized  by  all,  but  perhaps  the  great 
primary  and  positive  characteristics  of  a  life  won 
to  Jesus  have  not  been  so  readily  perceived  and  so 
insistently  demanded  of  those  who  have  taken  upon 
themselves  the  name  of  the  Son  of  man.  To  win  a 
life  to  Jesus  does  include  this  latter  phase  of  the 
Christian  idealism  and  should  never  be  lost  sight 
of,  either  by  those  who  are  endeavoring  to  win  others 
or  those  who  are  being  won.  Jesus  emphasized  the 
positive  side  of  religion  which  is  manifested  in  those 
qualities  of  character  that  are  far  above  the  shame- 
fully sinful.  He  never  intimated  that  his  followers 
were  really  won  to  him  if  they  gave  evidence  of  noth- 
ing more  than  freedom  from  the  despicable.  He 
was  always  calling  attention  to  the  demand  for  the 
noble  strong  and  great  qualities  of  moral  and  spirit- 
ual life.  His  ideal  made  that  of  a  common  Judaism 
look  disgraceful,  made  the  immorality  of  a  Pagan 
world  appear  horrible  and  made  the  best  of  the  past 
seem  singularly  faulty.  The  world  is  yet  to  give 
us  one  individual  who  approximates  Jesus'  ideal,  so 
strikingly  high  was  its  character  and  pure  its  spirit. 

TO  JESUs'   LIFE   CONCEPTION  AND  WORLD  VIEW  POINT 

A  life  conception  and  a  world  view  point  are  at 
the  basis  of  all  life  activity.  Life  cannot  be  what 
it  ought  to  be  unless  one  has  both.  No  one  is  really 
won  to  Jesus  who  does  not  have  His  view  of  both. 


232  PEESON'AL  RELIGIOI^ 

One  of  the  greatest  tasks  of  the  life  winner  is  to 
get  the  one  whom  he  is  seeking  to  win  to  Jesus 
to  see  what  Jesus  saw  as  he  looked  out  upon  the 
world.  Humanity's  world  view  is  very  distorted. 
Men  are  blind  to  the  significance  of  facts.  Some  are 
short  sighted.  Some  see  almost  nothing  in  its  cor- 
rect perspective.  The  world  looks  to  be  chaotic  and 
strange.  There  seems  to  be  no  law  governing  any- 
thing. Human  beings  come  on  to  the  earth  like 
little  animals  and  struggle  to  get  enough  to  eat  and 
drink,  fight  with  their  brothers  and  sisters  in  the 
human  family,  strive  to  get  the  best  of  each  other, 
exist  for  a  few  years  in  luxury  or  misery  and  then 
die.  Each  one  gets  all  he  can  out  of  life  and  only  lets 
the  others  take  what  they  can  grab.  He  is  shrewd- 
est who  can  grasp  and  hold  the  most.  They  do  not 
perceive  any  foundations  on  which  a  human  life  is 
being  scientifically  built,  they  do  not  see  any  divine 
architect  drawing  plans  or  working  out  moral  and 
religious  specifications,  they  see  no  stately  building 
of  proportion  and  symmetry  being  constructed.  All 
is  odds  and  ends,  hollows  and  hills,  gasp  and  bulges. 
The  incoming  millions  simply  fill  up  the  hollows  and 
gaps  as  others  pass  on.  It  is  an  endless,  meaning- 
less procession  to  them.  There  is  no  solidarity  to 
humanity.  'No  moral  world  order.  No  purpose  in 
life,  no  soul  to  it,  no  heart  beat  back  of  it,  no  guiding 
hand  controlling  it.  We  were  born  by  chance,  met 
fate  on  the  doorstep,  have  struggled  to  keep  out  of 
his  way  ever  since  and  wonder  if  after  all  he  will 
not  stand  at  the  exit  of  life  and  direct  our  eternal 
destiny,  regardless  of  how  we  may  protest  and  strug- 
gle against  his  evident  power.  Jesus  viewed  human- 
ity so  differently.     He  thought  of  human  beings  in 


SOUL  WIl^ISTING  AND  LIFE  WmKENG    233 

a  great  family,  with  one  Heavenly  Father ;  each  life 
precious,  sacred,  and  wonderful ;  possessing  a  moral 
nature  and  subject  to  divine  laws  of  a  perfected 
moral  order;  each  dependent  upon  the  other  and  all 
dependent  upon  the  Father ;  each  to  be  developed  ac- 
cording to  a  divine  pattern  and  as  a  whole  to  come 
to  a  state  of  moral  and  spiritual  perfection  in  har- 
mony with  the  Father's  plans  and  purposes ;  each 
able  to  respond  to  and  couple  up  with  the  forces 
which  that  Father  has  placed  in  the  world  for  hu- 
manity's development,  until  the  world  shall  be  a  place 
wherein  his  will  is  done.  He  saw  that  human  life 
was  beautiful  when  lived  normally,  and  that  human- 
ity had  within  it  the  power  to  respond  to  the  true 
and  divine.  It  is  this  view  point  that  must  dawn 
upon  the  person  who  is  really  won  to  Jesus.  Jesus 
tried  to  get  those  early  followers  to  see  it.  None  of 
them  did,  but  all  tried,  no  doubt.  Paul  caught  a 
glimpse  of  it  and  ere  his  life  was  done  had  a  vision 
of  it.  Today  it  ought  to  be  comparatively  easy  to 
get  all  to  see  it.  Given  one  who  truly  beholds  it  and 
who  can,  with  words  in  conversation,  clearly  paint 
it,  and  another  who  desires  to  perceive  it  as  he  ex- 
presses a  sincere  purpose  to  follow  Christ,  and  with 
this,  the  illumination  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is 
always  ready  at  hand  to  impress  it,  it  ought  not 
to  be  difficult  to  get  the  world  to  perceive  it.  But 
simply  seeing  it,  is  not  winning  one  to  its  vision. 
One  may  quickly  perceive  Jesus'  world  view  and  then 
fail  to  respond  to  it.  It  is  dissolved  into  other  pic- 
tures colored  by  selfish  ambitions  and  materialistic 
aims.  It  never  impressed  itself  upon  the  mind  or 
soul.  It  was  only  a  flashlight  glimpse.  To  be  won 
to  Jesus'  view  of  humanity  means  to  be  thrilled  by 


234  PERSOI^AL  RELIGION 

it,  to  live  in  its  glory  every  day,  to  sit  by  its  color- 
ings and  study  them,  to  receive  its  outlines  to  the 
heart  and  to  walk  with  it  in  sight  along  every  ave- 
nue and  alley  of  human  existence.  Let  the  life  win- 
ner know  that  the  other  has  not  been  won  to  Jesus' 
life  conception  unless  this  is  accomplished.  The  life 
winner  must  work  in  the  role  of  an  artist  and  stay 
with  his  task  until  on  the  retina  of  the  other's  soul, 
this  picture  is  indelibly  painted.  This  is  what  it 
implies  to  win  another  to  Jesus'  life  conception  and 
world  view.  How  can  one's  life  be  won  to  Jesus, 
if  he  does  not  see  what  human  life  really  is,  what 
the  world  scope  and  significance  of  it  is  and  how  his 
life  is  to  be  related  to  the  entire  human  scheme  ?  '^o 
life  can  be  truly  lived  without  this  view  point  to 
live  from,  therefore  no  life  is  actually  won  to  Jesus 
until  this  vision  captivates  and  controls  the  individ- 
ual. Because  a  person  states  that  he  believes  in 
Jesus  does  not  imply  that  the  life  has  been  caught 
by  such  a  vision.  He  may  go  out  into  the  world 
and  stagger  through  as  imintelligently  as  a  drunken 
man  does  along  the  paths  of  a  flower  garden.  He, 
even  with  good  intentions  in  his  heart,  may  actually 
mutilate  the  human  flowers  by  his  own  stupidity,  may 
spoil  many  a  beautiful  bed  and  work  disaster  to  the 
garden  as  a  whole.  But  seeing  the  whole  human 
garden  before  him  as  Jesus  would  have  him  view  it 
and  imderstanding  what  humanity  really  is,  he  ap- 
proaches each  flower  wisely,  he  fits  his  own  life  into 
the  general  color  scheme  and  makes  himself  a  posi- 
tive contribution  to  the  development  of  the  human 
race.  Therefore  no  human  life  can  be  made  useful 
in  Christ's  idea  of  usefulness  unless  it  first  of  all 
be  won  to  behold  what  the  Master  sees  in  the  world 


SOUL  WINNING  AND  LIFE  WINNING    235 

about  it.  God  does  not  want  us  to  stumble  ignorantly 
through  the  garden  of  humanity.  He  sent  Jesus  to 
us  to  make  clear  what  it  means  to  live  in  this  garden. 
To  be  won  to  him  we  must  stand  with  him  in  the 
very  center  of  all  human  life  and  perceive  its  genius, 
weaknesses,  potentialities,  possibilities,  laws  of 
growth  and  divine  destiny. 

TO    RECEIVE    THE    SPIRIT    OF    JESUS    INTO    THE    HEART 

THAT   THE   DISPOSITION    OF    THE   LIFE   MAY   BE 

GENUINELY   CHRISTIAN 

It  is  one  thing  to  see,  it  is  more  to  love  what  you 
see.  Jesus  saw  hmnanity  with  clear  soul  perception 
and  he  also  had  a  disposition  to  love  it,  to  move 
toward  it,  to  be  kind  to  it,  and  to  seek  and  to  save 
it.  To  be  won  to  Jesus  implies  that  we  have  become 
recipients  of  his  spirit  and  are  disposed  toward  hu- 
manity as  he  was.  Our  life,  if  lived,  must  be  lived 
in  connection  with  human  beings  who  are  around 
us  and  of  whom  we  are  a  part.  That  life  cannot 
be  lived  properly,  that  is  Christianly,  unless  it  has 
the  fundamental  disposition  toward  those  human  be- 
ings which  Jesus  had.  The  disposition  is  basic  to 
everything.  There  is  little  use  of  considering  being 
a  Christian  unless  this  is  first  secured.  All  life 
depends  upon  it.  Our  attitude  toward  anything  de- 
cides our  relation  to  it  and  our  activities  in  connec- 
tion with  it.  We  fear  there  are  many  good  people 
seeking  to  secure  human  betterment  in  the  wrong 
way.  They  have  the  cart  before  the  horse.  Men 
will  not  be  induced  to  act  rightly  toward  each  other 
until  they  feel  rightly  toward  each  other.  They  will 
still  be  selfish,  grasping,  unreasonably  assertive  of 


236  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

rights,  and  even  combative  and  wicked,  until  they 
have  a  different  disposition  toward  their  fellows.  The 
great  primary  need  of  humanity  today  is  to  be  won 
to  that  attitude  toward  others  which  comes  only  from 
receiving  the  spirit  of  God  into  their  lives.  Jesus' 
life  was  what  it  was  because  of  its  spirit  and  hu- 
manity today  must  have  the  same  spirit  to  make  its 
life  right.  This  disposition  of  love,  goodwill,  kind- 
ness, patience  and  longsuffering  is  what  humanity 
needs.  There  is  no  hope  of  solving  human  world 
problems  unless  this  is  secured.  This  is  what  our 
social  life  must  have  above  ever}i;hing  else.  ISTo  one 
is  really  won  to  Jesus  unless  he  has  been  brought 
by  divine  processes  to  experience  this  spirit.  Pro- 
fessing Christians  who  have  said  they  have  accepted 
Jesus  as  Saviour  and  have  united  with  the  church 
with  no  thought  that  they  must  have  this  spirit  to 
be  Christian,  have  not  been  actually  won  to  Jesus. 
The  test  question  when  people  unite  with  the  church 
is  not,  do  you  accept  Jesus  as  the  one  to  save  you  from 
the  penalty  of  your  sins  hereafter  ?  but  do  you  re- 
ceive the  spirit  of  Jesus  into  your  heart  and  life 
now  ?  Do  you  want  to  love  others  ?  Do  you  desire 
to  forgive  others?  Do  you  wish  above  everything 
else  to  live  in  kindness  toward  everybody  and  do 
them  good  ?  Is  this  the  attitude  you  want  to  have 
toward  humanity?  Do  you  feel  that  this  is  being 
brought  about  in  your  heart  just  now?  These  are 
queries  which  the  persons  who  wish  to  unite  with 
our  churches  should  have  asked  them  simply  because 
it  is  the  primary  test  of  being  won  to  Jesus.  Hear 
Paul  say,  "If  anyone  has  not  the  Christlike  spirit 
he  is  not  his."  Rom.  8 :  9.  He  knew  that  only  those 
who  were  won  to  his  disposition  were  really  won  to 


SOUL  WINNING  AND  LIFE  WINNING    23Y 

him.  And  this  is  what  we  should  realize  today.  We 
are  not  to  discount  convictions  regarding;  truth  and  the 
place  that  loyalty  to  truth  has  in  the  Christian  life. 
But  no  amount  of  loyalty  to  truth  in  an  abstract 
sense  can  take  the  place  of  loyalty  to  truth  in  the 
concrete  sense  or  loyalty  to  Christ's  spirit.  Is  there 
any  loyalty  to  the  truth  of  love  or  its  expression  of 
kindness,  if  there  is  no  love  in  the  heart  or  kindness 
in  the  life?  Therefore  our  task  as  life  winners  is 
again  specifically  outlined  for  us.  We  are  to  win 
others  to  receive  his  spirit.  It  will  probably  be  done 
not  so  much  by  preaching  to  humanity  about  the 
spirit  of  Jesus,  as  by  living  with  humanity  in  the 
spirit  of  Jesus.  You  cannot  talk  a  person  into  this 
spirit  as  easily  as  you  can  love  him  into  it.  The 
best  winner  is  therefore  the  best  lover.  But  conver- 
sational love  is  fruitful.  Many  a  person  is  won 
by  it.  Couple  the  actual  helping  of  another  by 
kindness  and  love  with  the  oral  appeal,  and  great 
souls  are  moved  toward  Christ  and  his  claims. 

TO  ADOPT  THE  ETHICAL  PKINCIPLES  OF  JESUS  IN   THE 

LIFE 

To  be  won  to  Jesus  signifies  the  ethical  response 
of  the  life  to  him.  Jesus  came  to  establish  in  man 
an  ethical  consciousness  and  no  one  could  be  won 
to  him  unless  there  was  some  response  to  his  claims. 
Matthew  Arnold  said  life  was  three-fourths  conduct. 
Jesus  certainly  made  it  much  of  life.  His  kingdom 
could  not  be  established  in  human  life  unless  men 
adopted  the  principles  of  right  living  which  were 
essential  to  that  kingdom,  therefore  no  person  could 
be  truly  won  to  him  if  he  did  not  recognize  the 


238  PERSONAL  RELIGIOIT 

principles  which  Jesus  championed  and  if  he  failed 
to  incorporate  them  into  his  life.  When  Jesus  asked 
men  to  "follow  him"  he  wanted  them  to  know  what 
he  expected  of  them.  It  was  something  more  than 
to  be  with  him  while  he  preached  and  worked  mir- 
acles. There  was  a  distinctive  moral  note  in  it  all. 
'No  man  was  won  to  him  who  simply  stepped  over  on 
his  side  of  the  company,  believed  he  was  a  wonderful 
man  or  God's  Son  and  said  so  publicly.  It  was  the 
one  who  thoughtfully  considered  the  principles  of 
righteousness  and  justice  he  stood  for  and  was  deter- 
mined that  these  principles  should  be  his  very  own. 
There  were  some  who  followed  him  for  personal  gain, 
and  because  he  was  popular  with  the  common  people, 
and  because  they  were  swept  in  with  his  believers 
during  the  excitement  of  the  hour,  but  their  super- 
ficiality was  soon  tested.  When  he  made  plain  to 
them  that  his  was  a  spiritual  kingdom,  that  it  implied 
loyalty  to  principles  of  character,  even  at  personal 
cost,  then  one  by  one  they  went  to  their  own  com- 
pany. They  were  not  willing  to  make  his  princi- 
ples actually  theirs,  therefore  they  left  him.  The 
person  who  is  won  to  Jesus  is  the  one  who  responds 
morally  to  the  code  of  life  conduct  which  he  asked 
men  to  accept.  It  implies  a  recognition,  grasp  and 
assent  to  this  ideal  of  living  which  is  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  identification  of  the  conscience  and  will 
to  that  which  Jesus  considered  right.  So  that  the 
person  won  studies  Jesus  and  his  teachings  seri- 
ously, considers  Jesus  and  his  teachings  favorably, 
accepts  Jesus  and  his  teachings  authoritatively,  ap- 
plies those  teachings  to  his  own  life  practically,  and 
incorporates  the  principles  of  those  teachings  into  his 
own  life  conscientiously.     How  clear  it  is  that  the 


SOUL  WINNING  AND  LIFE  WINNING     239 

only  life  which  is  truly  won  to  Jesus  is  that  one  which 
is  being  lived  out  according  to  the  ethical  principles 
which  he  so  forcefully  and  repeatedly  declared  were 
the  true  principles  on  which  the  whole  moral  order 
of  the  world  was  based.  A  profession  of  faith  in 
him  without  the  life  thus  morally  governed  would  be 
not  only  hypocritical  but  disastrous  to  the  life  itself 
and  also  to  the  Kingdom  he  came  to  establish.  Noth- 
ing can  endure  except  that  which  is  molded  accord- 
ing to  the  eternal  laws  of  right  which  govern  the 
moral  world  order.  One  is  won  to  Christ  as  he 
thinks  this  honestly  and  feels  it  in  his  deepest  soul.  It 
is  not  the  person  who  decides  to  do  what  Jesus  would 
have  him  do  simply  because  he  desires  respectabil- 
ity or  temporary  moral  success  or  personal  achieve- 
ment, but  the  one  who  responds  so  truly  to  Christ's 
moral  maxims  in  his  heart  and  mind  that  he  really 
lives  for  goodness,  practices  justice,  and  would  rather 
be  right  than  own  a  million,  if  the  alternative  were 
forced  upon  him.  No  one  may  reasonably  think 
he  is  a  Christian  until  such  ethical  fruits  are  realized 
in  his  life.  And  no  one  has  a  right  to  think  he  has 
won  another  to  Christ  until  he  sees  in  his  life  plain 
honesty,  square  dealing,  business  integrity,  simple 
kindness,  true  consideration  of  others  and  those  acts 
in  daily  life  relations  which  manifest  the  essence  of 
the  ethical  teachings  of  Jesus. 

TO  DEVOTION  TO  JESUS'  IDEAL 

Jesus'  ideal  was  love,  righteousness,  and  brother- 
hood among  men,  or  in  other  words  the  Kingdom  on 
earth.  That  kingdom  could  only  be  established  as 
the  religious  and  ethical  principles  which  he  cham- 


240  PERSONAL  RELIGION" 

pioned  became  operative  in  the  lives  of  all  men. 
Jesus  depended  upon  those  who  were  his  followers 
to  help  realize  this  ideal  in  humanity.  This  de- 
manded of  each  early  disciple  a  devotion  to  his  ideal. 
The  basis  of  this  devotion  was  a  passion  to  do  his 
will.  The  souls  of  those  first  followers  were  aflame 
with  enthusiasm.  They  became  living  dynamos  with 
one  objective  in  mind  and  heart.  Everything  else 
was  secondary.  What  Jesus  wanted  to  be  done  was 
the  thing  to  be  done.  They  were  absorbed  in  heart 
and  mind  with  the  Master's  plan.  This  enthusiasm 
was  not  expressed  in  sentimental  gushings  but  in 
actual  activity  in  the  cause  of  the  Kingdom.  There 
was  a  glad  cooperation  with  Jesus  in  his  Kingdom 
task.  They  associated  themselves  with  Jesus  to  help 
do  his  work.  Their  ideal  of  life  was  to  be  "well 
pleasing  unto  the  Lord"  a  personal  devotion  to  him, 
but  it  was  to  be  manifested  in  hearty  cooperation 
with  him  in  the  actual  tests  of  his  Kingdom. 
He  depended  upon  their  cooperation  to  have 
it  done.  He  left  it  with  them  when  he  went 
away  and  their  devotion  to  him  was  measured  by 
their  willingness  to  have  a  part  in  what  he  came 
to  accomplish.  The  early  disciples  were  workers  to- 
gether with  God  to  secure  the  Kingdom  of  God  on 
earth.  This  cooperation  demanded  a  consecration  of 
themselves  including  everything  they  possessed  to  the 
interests  of  that  Kingdom  ideal.  So  they  laid  every- 
thing they  had  at  the  feet  of  the  Master  and  proved 
the  genuineness  of  their  devotion  by  their  conse- 
cration. They  sold  their  earthly  goods,  forsook  home 
and  loved  ones,  left  their  fishing  nets  by  the  sea  side 
and  gave  every  talent  of  heart,  mind  and  life  to 
secure  Jesus'  ideal  in  hmnanity.     To  be  sure  some 


SOUL  WINNING  AND  LIFE  WINNING    241 

did  not  continue,  the  task  was  harder  than  they  at 
first  thought,  the  Kingdom  did  not  come  as  they  ex- 
pected it  would,  their  enthusiasm  being  born  out  of 
an  apocalyptic  hope  and  that  hope  failing  of  realiza- 
tion, cooled,  and  many  of  the  most  devoted  fell  by 
the  way  side  and  gave  up  the  work.  But  some  re- 
mained faithful  to  the  end  of  their  lives.  These 
were  the  ones  who  were  fully  won  to  Christ.  To 
be  actually  won  to  Christ  in  those  days  implied  just 
this  passion,  cooperation,  consecration  and  faithful- 
ness in  service.  We  are  removed  some  1900  years 
from  that  day,  and  the  ideal  of  Jesus  is  still  unreal- 
ized. Jesus  depends  upon  his  followers  today  as  he 
did  then.  His  spirit  is  moving  upon  men  to  secure 
their  devotion  to  his  purpose  in  the  world.  There 
is  no  other  way  that  the  Kingdom  can  come.  That 
spirit  is  working  to  win  men  to  the  task  at  hand. 
The  call  to  Christ  is  a  call  for  this  service.  As  in 
those  days,  only  those  who  were  willing  to  take  up 
this  task,  were  actually  won  to  him,  so  it  is  today. 
As  no  follower  of  his  who  went  out  then  to  win, 
could  truthfully  declare  that  he  had  won  another 
unless  the  person  won  gave  evidence  of  devotion  to 
humanity  in  an  endeavor  to  actualize  Jesus'  ideal,  so 
none  of  us  can  state  in  truth  that  he  has  won  another 
to  Jesus  unless  he  feels  sure  that  the  life  of  the  person 
won  has  been  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Master 
to  secure  the  Kingdom  of  righteousness  and  love 
in  the  world.  This  imperative  should  be  even  more 
clearly  recognized  today  than  then. 

Converts  should  only  be  counted  as  they  manifest 
the  same  devotion.  They  should  be  made  to  under- 
stand that  they  have  not  yielded  to  Christ  until  they 
possess  a  passion  to  bring  about  in  humanity  the 


242  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

conditions  of  righteousness  and  brotherhood.  Their 
life  view  point  is  this  ideal,  their  disposition  toward 
others  is  the  love  which  will  secure  this  ideal,  the 
principles  of  their  own  lives  are  those  which  operate 
to  realize  this  ideal,  and  now  the  proof  of  all  three 
of  these  is  the  actual  life  devotion  to  accomplish 
this  ideal.  When  the  individual  has  come,  in  his 
religious  and  ethical  experience,  to  this  condition, 
then  we  may  state  he  has  been  really  won  to  Christ. 
And  there  is  no  reason  why  when  one  first  becomes 
an  avowed  Christian,  even  in  the  tender  years  of 
teens,  he  should  not  understand  that  to  be  won  to 
Jesus  signifies  just  this.  Christian  lives  should  be 
started  with  correct  conceptions  of  what  Jesus  ex- 
pects. Far  better  have  fewer  profess  to  be  won,  and 
have  them  realize  more  fully  what  it  signifies,  than 
to  have  multitudes  led  into  superficial  Christian 
careers.  No  pastor  or  evangelist  can  be  excused  from 
making  the  call  of  Christ  so  clear  that  no  one  who 
hears  shall  mistake  what  it  means  to  be  won  to  Jesus. 
It  will  be  better  for  the  Kingdom  in  the  future  if 
we  of  the  present  deal  fairly  and  frankly  with  all. 
There  will  be  more  truth  also  in  the  reports  of  our 
churches  if  statistics  of  those  won  to  Jesus  chronicle 
the  actual  winning  of  souls  and  lives  to  the  soul  of 
Jesus  and  to  the  life  ideal  and  ministry  which  he  so 
beautifully  personified  in  his  own  earthly  career  and 
which  he  so  clearly  and  emphatically  stated  in  his 
appeals  to  humanity  to  follow  him.  Let  us  do  away 
entirely  with  superficial,  meaningless  records.  Shall 
we  not  call  the  membership  of  our  churches  to  appre- 
ciate the  significance  of  "life  winning"  ?  Shall  we 
not  lead  one  and  all  to  see  that  only  those  who,  hav- 
ing the  vision  and  spirit  of  the  Master,  devote  their 


SOUL  WINNING  AND  LIFE  WINNING    243 

time  and  talents  in  loving  ministry  to  humanity  in 
order  that  the  Kingdoms  of  the  world  may  become 
the  Kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  Christ  (which  means 
that  love  and  right  and  brotherhood  shall  be  uni- 
versal), are  actually  and  fully  won  to  Jesus.  No 
doubt,  it  is  impossible  to  have  the  conception  and 
experience  thus  outlined  as  clear,  real  and  compre- 
hensive at  first  as  it  will  be  in  later  years,  for  each 
year  in  the  life  of  the  sincere  follower  of  Jesus  is  a 
record  of  being  won  to  larger,  greater  and  more 
Christlike  privileges  and  ministries,  but  all  should 
be  won  to  this  conception  and  experience  up  to  his 
capacity  at  first  that  the  life  may  have  the  privi- 
lege of  developing  correctly  into  those  larger  visions 
and  activities  which  it  is  divinely  destined  for.  We 
should  be  sure  that  no  life  under  our  influence  is  won 
to  less  than  the  genius  of  Jesus'  ideal,  at  the  start  and 
that  education  and  direction  are  given  to  it  intelli- 
gently all  the  way  along.     This  is  evangelism  indeed. 


CHAPTER   ELEVEN 
MAKING   DISCIPLES 

JESUS,  just  before  he  left  his  disciples,  took  them 
into  his  counsel  and  gave  them  directions  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  the  work  which  they  were  to 
do  in  the  world.  As  an  integral  part  of  a  masterful 
plan,  he  declared  that  they  were  to  go  forth  and 
make  disciples.  This  was  to  be  considered  as  a  very 
important  and  fundamental  phase  of  their  service  in 
his  name.  They  were  disciples  and  they  were  to 
make  disciples.  This  fact  has  led  the  Christian 
church  to  maintain  that  in  the  broad  scheme  of  the 
Christian  objective,  the  making  of  individual  dis- 
ciples has  its  high  place.  The  Kingdom  cannot  come 
without  it.  No  effort  to  ameliorate  human  condi- 
tions, important  as  this  service  is,  will  ever  be  substi- 
tuted for  making  actual  personal  disciples  of  Jesus. 
They  are  both  essential. 

As  the  disciples  of  early  Christianity  did,  so  are 
we  to  do.  That  is,  the  making  of  disciples  is  recog- 
nized by  this  local  body  of  Christians  to  be  an  essen- 
tial part  of  our  task  in  the  community  and  the  world. 
With  this  true,  a  very  pertinent  inquiry  is  concern- 
ing the  nature  of  the  task  which  is  before  us.  What 
does  it  imply  to  make  a  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ 
today?  It  is  exceedingly  important  for  us  to  have 
this  in  our  minds  before  we  actually  take  up  the 
work.     If  our  business  is  quite  largely  the  bring- 

244 


MAKING  DISCIPLES  245 

ing  into  being  of  live  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ,  then 
we  must  know  what  a  live  disciple  is.  As  the  em- 
ployee in  a  manufacturing  plant,  who  is  making  defi- 
nite articles,  must  have  a  clear  conception  of  what 
he  is  to  make,  so  we  as  servants  of  our  Master  must 
have  the  true  idea  of  what  Jesus  has  asked  us  to  do. 
We  must  mentally  see  a  disciple  before  we  try  to 
actualize  one.  We  must  know  so  well  what  he  is 
that  we  will  recognize  him  when  he  is  made.  We 
should  understand  the  nature  of  discipleship  and  the 
process  of  securing  it  so  perfectly  that  we  will  be 
cognizant  of  the  beginning  of  the  process  in  an  indi- 
vidual and  be  able  to  recognize  progress  toward  its 
consummation  if  it  is  there.  To  ascertain  and  under- 
stand the  Master's  idea  of  his  disciples  is  our  hope 
in  this  study,  then  we  can  with  intelligence  obey 
his  command  to  go  forth  and  make  disciples. 

We  are  not  making  mechanics,  or  financiers,  or 
philosophers,  or  soldiers,  we  are  told  to  make  disci- 
ples of  Jesus,  therefore  to  Jesus  we  go  that  we  may 
know  what  a  disciple  is.  We  shall  not  discuss  the 
process,  or  the  field,  we  are  seeking  a  definition,  a 
description,  and  an  ideal,  in  order  to  do  the  work 
intelligently. 

THE   DISCIPLE  AND  JESUs'   PLAN 

Jesus  came  to  do  a  definite  work  for  humanity  ac- 
cording to  the  will  of  his  Father  who  had  sent  him. 
That  work  was  to  establish  a  Kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness on  the  earth  and  to  make  real  within  man  the 
life  which  is  eternal. 

At  thirty  years  of  age,  he  started  out  to  accom- 
plish his  holy  purpose  and  of  necessity  had  some  well 


246  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

defined  plan  of  action.  By  public  discourses  in  the 
open,  and  by  private  conversations  with  individuals 
he  disclosed  the  religious  and  ethical  ideals  which 
he  came  to  make  known,  the  principles  which  formed 
the  basis  of  his  Kingdom  plan  and  also  the  spirit 
and  character  which  were  essential  to  his  ideal. 

As  a  distinct  step  in  advance  toward  securing  his 
Kingdom  ideal,  he  chose  twelve  disciples  to  assist 
him.  'No  great  cause  can  be  made  successful  without 
leaders.  After  a  night  of  prayer  in  the  mountain  and 
with  great  care  and  seriousness,  he  called  twelve  men, 
who  came  from  the  ordinary  vocations  of  life,  men 
of  humble  birth  and  station  and  of  no  culture  and 
particular  fitness,  to  be  the  leaders  of  his  divine  enter- 
prise. They,  with  others,  had  been  following  him 
under  the  charm  of  his  personality  and  the  hope  of 
his  message,  but  now  they  were  selected  one  by  one 
and  called  by  name  and  told  that  they  were  to  be 
his  chosen  representatives  and  his  close  companions 
in  this  plan  which  the  Father  had  given  him. 

The  word  disciple  occurs  in  the  Gospel  records 
some  230  times.  Subsequent  to  the  Gospels,  the  word 
is  found  some  thirty  times  in  the  New  Testament.  It 
signifies  "trained  one."  There  is  a  clear  distinction 
between  the  word  "disciple"  and  "believer."  Every 
disciple  was  a  believer,  but  not  every  believer  was  a 
disciple.  Belief  or  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  was  the 
open  door  through  which  the  individual  passed  on 
the  way  to  discipleship.  But  simple  belief  in  Jesus 
did  not  make  one  a  disciple.  To  be  a  disciple  one 
must  be  trained.  The  objective  of  faith  in  Jesus  was 
discipleship  but  faith  was  not  the  beginning  and  end 
of  discipleship.  Faith  was  the  introduction  to  train- 
ing. 


MAKING  DISCIPLES  247 

Training  could  not  be  secured  without  schooling 
and  experience,  so  Jesus  as  teacher  matriculated 
these  potential  disciples  in  his  school  of  religion  and 
ethics  and  also  in  the  school  of  actual  life  experience. 
He  daily  taught  them  truth  about  God,  his  nature, 
character,  disposition  towai'd  his  children  and  his 
will;  the  dignity  and  value  of  human  life,  the  rela- 
tion of  men  to  God,  to  each  other,  the  meaning  of 
life  itself,  the  ethical  standards  which  should  gov- 
ern mankind  and  the  spirit  and  principles  which  are 
eternal  in  the  moral  order  of  the  world  and  which 
were  quite  essential  in  securing  the  objective  which 
they  together  should  now  work  for.  These  principles 
are  to  be  found  in  that  remarkable  discourse  named 
^'The  Sermon  on  the  Mount."  He  taught  them  dur- 
ing three  years  of  preaching  and  ministry,  sometimes 
in  perfect  quiet  alone  and  at  other  times  by  illus- 
tration and  uttered  precept  as  he  dealt  with  the  peo- 
ple about  him.  They  were  taught  by  being  with  him, 
listening  to  him,  watching  him,  praying  by  his  side, 
noting  how  he  dealt  with  intricate  moral  problems 
and  witnessing  his  wonderful  works.  John  15:  15: 
"Everything  I  have  learned  of  my  Father,  I  have 
made  known  to  you."     (See  Mark  10  :1  also.) 

This  reveals  that  he  gave  them  the  best  of  instruc- 
tion. He  also  gave  them  work  to  do,  that  by  expe- 
rience they  might  learn.  Many  a  mistake  did  they 
make,  but  at  the  end  of  the  three  years  they  had 
been  taught  much  and  had  learned  something  of 
the  real  nature  of  his  kingdom,  of  the  ideal  he  came 
to  make  real  to  humanity  and  of  the  divine  purpose 
of  their  discipleship.  Jesus  often  reproved  them  for 
not  learning  more.  They  were  evidently  very  lim- 
ited in  ability  and  insight.     He  was  obliged  to  leave 


248  PERSOI^AL  RELIGIOIT 

them  at  his  death  conscious  that  they  were  after  all 
poorly  trained.  Their  ideas  of  religion  were  far  from 
being  mature,  as  his  last  conversation  with  them  re- 
corded in  Acts  1 :  6-8  revealed,  but  he  left  his  king- 
dom task  with  them  and  told  them  to  go  forth  and 
make  disciples.  They  were  the  best  leaders  he  could 
secure.  They  were  to  train  others  in  the  truths  which 
he  had  taught  them.  This  was  their  business  and 
was  imperative  in  view  of  the  object  of  his  mission  to 
earth,  and  it  was  only  as  they  trained  individuals  in 
his  religious  and  ethical  ideals  and  principles  that 
they  could  make  disciples. 

THE  DISCIPLE  DEFINED 

We  are  removed  some  1900  years  from  the  school 
of  Jesus,  in  which  those  early  disciples  were  trained, 
and  it  is  possible  that  some  ideas  concerning  disciple- 
ship  may  have  received  credence  which  are  not  in 
accord  with  his  teaching.  But  there  ought  to  be  no 
difficulty  in  ascertaining  from  that  teaching  what  a 
Christian  disciple  is,  therefore  what  the  modem 
church  is  asked  to  do  in  making  disciples.  As  there 
were  then,  so  there  are  now,  certain  steps  to  be  taken 
by  and  certain  conditions  to  secure  in  the  individual 
before  he  may  be  properly  considered  a  disciple  of 
the  Master.     They  are  as  follows: 

I.  One  must  be  a  genuine  student  of  Jesus'  ideals 
of  religion  and  life.  Humanity  must  find  Jesus  the 
teacher.  The  individual  must  first  get  into  contact 
with  him  and  his  teaching.  How  shall  this  be  done 
today  ? 

In  Jesus'  day,  prospective  disciples  could  approach 
him  personally  and  gain  from  him  by  personal  con- 


MAKIISTG  DISCIPLES  249 

versation  his  ideas  of  religion,  but  this  is  not  possible 
today.  Our  approach  must  be  through  the  record 
which  in  the  Providence  and  wisdom  of  God  has 
been  given  to  the  world  in  the  synoptic  Gospel  stories 
of  his  life. 

Today,  by  means  of  these  records,  one  may  ex- 
amine the  teachings  of  the  Master  and  ascertain  what 
his  conception  of  a  disciple  was.  This  contact  with 
the  truths  which  Jesus  uttered  is  essential  as  an 
initial  step  toward  discipleship.  First  hand  reading 
of  the  ISTew  Testament  is  therefore  important  to  se- 
cure personal  progress  in  this  matter.  Through  the 
divine  record  we  get  into  contact  with  the  divine 
teacher.  There  is  a  mystical  contact  also  but  it  needs 
the  direction  of  the  written  record.  It  is  there  that 
we  secure  the  story  of  his  life  and  a  statement  of  his 
ideas.  Our  ideas  of  what  Jesus  would  have  us  be 
as  his  disciples  must  not  be  allowed  to  differ  radically 
from  the  trend  of  his  teaching  in  the  ISTew  Testa- 
ment. Discipleship  without  perusal  of  the  message 
of  the  Master  is  liable  to  be  lopsided,  or  empty.  It 
develops  vagaries  and  delusions.  True  discipleship 
cannot  be  secured  apart  from  contact  with  the  verit- 
able message  of  Jesus. 

The  object  of  this  perusal  of  the  written  record 
is  to  become  a  student  of  it.  To  read  is  not  enough. 
Disciples  can  only  be  made  after  serious  study  of 
Jesus'  ideals.  Jesus  must  be  thought  of  as  a  teacher 
and  the  relationship  of  pupil  and  teacher  established. 

Discipleship  can  only  be  realized  through  pupil- 
ship.  Men  must  make  a  genuine  study  of  Jesus' 
religion  and  life.  It  cannot  be  appreciated  or  known 
without  study.  'No  person  can  become  a  disciple  of 
Jesus  by  merely  expressing  some  belief  in  him,  or 


250  PERSONAL  RELIGIO:^^ 

uniting  with  some  church,  or  endeavoring  to  live 
respectably.  There  must  be  hard  work  as  a  student. 
He  must  take  time  with  text  book  in  hand. 

One  can  no  more  be  a  disciple  of  Jesus  without 
study  than  he  can  be  a  scholar  in  any  realm  with- 
out it.  Some  people  refuse  to  study  under  Jesus, 
therefore  discipleship  is  impossible  to  them.  An  in- 
quiring heart  or  disposition  to  ?*udy  reveals  the  spirit 
of  a  Christian  pupil.  But  the  road  to  discipleship 
requires  something  more  than  a  willingness  or  anxiety 
to  know,  it  demands  patient  perusal  and  serious  con- 
sideration. 

This  study  must  be  made  intelligently.  The  times 
in  which  Jesus  lived  should  be  understood,  the  view- 
points of  the  writers  of  the  record  appreciated,  the 
occasion  of  the  sayings  realized,  the  manner  of  the 
preservation  of  the  records  known,  and  some  con- 
ception of  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  writers 
held,  in  order  to  interpret  properly  the  truths  which 
Jesus  taught. 

With  preconceptions  laid  aside,  the  facts  before 
the  student,  in  the  light  of  IsTew  Testament  scholar- 
ship, the  student  should  seek  honestly  to  understand 
the  principles  and  spirit  which  were  central  in  Jesus' 
ideal  of  religion  and  life.  There  may  be  inaccuracy 
in  statement,  omissions  or  interpolations,  but  the 
trend  of  Jesus'  teaching  will  be  evident.  The  stu- 
dents will  ask  for  show  of  evidence,  will  not  be  ab- 
sorbed in  details  but  will  work  hard  to  secure  light 
regarding  the  great  essentials  in  Christ's  teaching. 
By  thus  doing,  he  will  be  on  the  way  to  disciple- 
ship. 

11.  One  must  learn  the  inner  content  of  Jesus' 
religion  and  life.     The  object  of  being  a  pupil  is  to 


MAKING  DISCIPLES  251 

learn.  Learning  is  the  pupil's  task  under  a  teacher. 
One  becomes  a  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ  as  he  learns. 
The  test  of  discipleship  is  learning. 

The  true  disciple,  i.  e.,  the  trained  Christian,  intel- 
lectually perceives  the  central  truths  of  Jesus'  relig- 
ious message  to  the  world.  He  grasps  the  funda- 
mentals which  Jesus  taught.  Lie  not  only  reads  and 
studies,  but  learns.  After  being  in  the  class  room 
with  the  Master,  through  perusal  of  his  life  record, 
he  is  conscious  that  he  understands  him.  He  has 
gotten  something.  He  has  a  vision  of  the  ideal  that 
Jesus  was  portraying.  He  says  to  himself,  ''I  see 
it."  ^'It  is  plain  to  me."  ''I  have  learned  the  con- 
tent of  the  religion  he  came  to  reveal."  Study  has 
accomplished  something.  The  mind  has  conceived 
what  the  teacher  sought  to  make  clear.  This  is  an 
epoch  in  the  life  of  any  human  being.  It  is  the  great 
initial  step  toward  discipleship.  No  person  can  be 
a  disciple  of  Jesus  without  it.  He  may  be  some- 
thing of  a  Christian,  something  of  a  believer,  may 
have  the  spirit  of  Christ  within  him,  but  he  is  not  the 
trained  Christian. 

And  what  has  he  learned  ? 

He  has  learned  that  the  heart  of  Jesus'  religion 
is  love  to  God  and  love  to  man.  ^'Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  and 
that  this  twofold  love  must  be  possessed  in  the 
heart.  He  has  learned  that  the  fundamentals  of 
Jesus'  religion  issue  from  the  heart  in  a  life  of  rev- 
erence, righteousness,  justice,  mercy,  soberness,  and 
unselfishness.  That  as  men  forsake  sin,  become 
Christlike,  walk  humbly  before  God  in  love  for  him 
and  each  other,  they  are  manifesting  the  religion  that 
Jesus  held  up  as  ideal.     He  learns  that  Jesus  came 


252  PEESON'AL  RELIGION 

to  bring  humanity  to  this  ideal.  Learning  this,  he 
is  on  the  way  toward  discipleship.  He  is  ready  to  be 
made  into  one.  One  does  not  understand  how  he 
could  be  an  intelligent  disciple  of  Jesus  if  he  did  not 
mentally  perceive  this. 

He  also  learns  that  a  disciple  is  called  to  a  life 
of  patient  endurance,  self  sacrifice,  for  it  was  he  who 
said,  "If  any  man  would  come  after  me,  let  him  deny 
himself  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me."  It  is 
very  clear  to  him  that  there  will  be  more  or  less  hard- 
ship in  the  life  of  a  disciple.  He  is  called  to  a 
strenuous  career.  It  may  imply  becoming  a  martyr 
to  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness.  He  also 
learns  that  it  is  more  than  simply  endeavoring  to 
live  a  virtuous  life.  It  signifies  service  in  the  inter- 
ests of  himianity,  it  implies  giving  of  one's  material 
resources  to  the  needy,  it  means  spending  a  life  time 
in  proclaiming  divine  truths,  overcoming  evil,  cor- 
recting error,  in  a  real  effort  to  make  dominant  in 
human  society  the  principles  of  Jesus'  religion. 

More  than  this,  he  learns  that  discipleship  implies 
a  life  of  surrender  to  the  spirit  of  Christ.  Whatever 
that  spirit  presses  one  to  be,  to  do,  and  wherever  that 
spirit  calls  one  to  go,  it  must  be  done.  It  signifies 
the  supremacy  of  the  spiritual  in  the  soul  and  in  all 
activities  of  life.  He  learns  that  to  be  a  disciple 
of  Jesus  one  must  possess  within  himself  the  spirit 
of  the  Master  and  give  his  life  to  spiritual  objec- 
tives. All  of  this  he  mentally  apprehends  as  a  stu- 
dent and  learner. 

III.  One  must  know  the  experience  of  Jesus'  re- 
ligion and  life. 

Learning  implies  more  than  mere  mental  percep- 
tion of  the  great  principles  of  Jesus'  religion  and  life. 


MAKING  DISCIPLES  253 

"Ro  person  is  a  real  disciple  of  Jesus'  who  simply 
understands  what  Jesus  taught  and  realizes  what  his 
objective  was.  One  may  be  ever  so  exact  in  his 
analysis  of  Jesus'  ideas  and  ever  so  correct  in  inter- 
preting them  and  yet  be  very  far  from  his  disciple- 
ship.  Intellectual  conceptions  are  but  the  open  door- 
way to  the  approach  to  discipleship,  not  the  proof 
of  it. 

There  must  be  a  spiritual  response  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Christ.  It  is  not  the  ability  to  state  the 
truths  of  Jesus  that  makes  one  a  disciple  but  rather 
the  soul  apprehension  of  them.  They  must  be  re- 
ceived into  the  inmost  being,  must  become  a  part  of 
the  personal  desires,  aims,  and  hopes.  They  must 
be  experienced  in  the  heart  and  lived  in  the  life. 
Not  only  must  the  disciple  know  what  Jesus  was 
trying  to  accomplish  in  the  world  morally  and  spirit- 
ually, but  he  must  know  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  he  must 
embody  some  of  this  religion  in  his  own  personality. 
The  truth  of  spiritual  supremacy  must  be  lived  out 
in  him,  the  principles  of  righteousness  and  justice 
must  be  dominant  in  him,  the  spirit  of  love  and  unsel- 
fishness must  be  manifest  in  him,  the  passion  for 
the  good  of  all  regardless  of  individual  right  must 
burn  in  him.  As  this  is  true  he  is  a  disciple  of  the 
Master. 

One  realizes  that  this  signifies  the  applications  of 
the  principles  of  love,  righteousness  and  brotherhood 
to  every  phase  of  human  life.  It  applies  to  the  world 
of  business,  of  politics,  of  neighborhood  life,  of  every 
realm  the  follower  of  Jesus  enters.  As  he  lives  these 
principles  out  he  makes  real  his  discipleship. 

Scholarship  in  religion  implies  the  knowledge  of 
the  Lord  in  the  heart  and  life,  signifies  a  Christian 


254  PERSOIS'AL  RELIGION 

experience  of  depth,  in  which  the  presence  of  God 
is  real,  the  power  of  God  to  overcome  sin  and  to 
arise  above  material  control  is  a  fact  and  the  fruits 
of  the  spirit-love,  purity,  self  control,  peace,  and  kind- 
ness are  the  natural  result  of  the  life  of  Christ  in 
the  soul. 

Ethical  development  is  what  Jesus  sought  in  his 
disciples,  because  it  was  eternally  indispensable  to 
the  true  ideal  of  the  religious  life.  Scholarship  in 
discipleship  could  imply  nothing  less.  The  knowl- 
edge of  the  Lord  is  not  some  mystical  perception, 
some  uncanny  spiritual  intuition,  which  does  nothing 
more  than  to  enable  one  to  understand  religious  mys- 
teries and  to  penetrate  the  unseen ;  it  is  not  some 
supernatural  power  which  gives  one  a  seventh  heaven 
experience  and  keeps  man  far  above  everything  mun- 
dane and  human,  but  rather  that  sense  of  the  divine 
which  makes  God  one  with  his  children  and  that 
Christlikeness  of  character  which  manifests  itself  in 
loving  kindness  and  justice  in  all  human  relation- 
ships. To  learn  Christ  means  to  be  made  like  him, 
to  have  his  spirit  and  ideals,  to  deal  with  humanity 
as  he  did,  to  make  manhood  synonymous  with  right- 
eousness and  to  become  absorbed  in  the  fine  art  of 
living  for  others.  This  is  scholarship  in  Christian 
discipleship. 

IV.  One  must  devote  himself  and  his  life  to  the 
Kingdom  objective  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Jesus  called  his  disciples  purposely  to  extend  his 
Kingdom  enterprise  and  through  them  to  realize  his 
world  wide  ideal.  They  were  not  asked  to  follow 
him  for  what  they  could  secure  for  themselves,  but 
for  what  they  could  accomplish  in  his  Kingdom  plan. 
With  this  true,  and  the  fact  that  he  taught  them 


MAKING  DISCIPLES  255 

the  extent  of  his  plan  and  their  important  place  in  it, 
it  is  obvious  that  they  actually  learned  of  him  as 
they  became  obedient  to  his  wishes  and  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  task  he  had  outlined  for  them. 

Learning  of  Jesus  implies  activity  in  his  cause. 
The  mind  conceives,  the  soul  responds  and  the  life 
■poivers  become  active.  The  disciple  is  not  a  recipient 
of  the  grace  of  God  primarily,  he  is  a  messenger  of 
his  Lord.  He  is  a  force  to  accomplish  the  purpose 
of  Christ  in  the  world.  He  is  a  factor  in  establish- 
ing the  kingdom.  Indifference  to  the  needs  of  the 
world,  and  inactivity  in  the  Master's  propaganda  sig- 
nifies poor  work  in  the  school  of  Christ.  Lessons 
have  not  been  learned  and  discipleship  is  not  real- 
ized. He  who  does  not  love  all  human  beings,  who 
does  not  labor  hard  to  help  all,  who  does  not  give 
freely  of  time  and  talents  to  make  Christ  real  to  all, 
who  does  not  become  aggressive  in  the  cause  of  right- 
eousness on  the  earth  and  who  does  not  take  up  with 
zeal  the  planetary  mission  of  Christ,  has  not  learned 
his  lessons  and  is  not  a  scholar  in  the  school  of 
Christ.  He  is  really  not  a  disciple.  He  may  be 
something  of  a  believer  but  not  a  trained  follower 
of  the  Master.  We  should  remember  that  all  dis- 
ciples are  trained  men  and  women. 

The  learning  of  the  principles  of  discipleship  also 
implied  the  willingness  to  go  to  any  extreme  of  self 
renunciation  or  sacrifice  in  order  to  fulfil  the  Lord's 
will  among  men.  The  dedication  of  one's  self  to 
the  cause  of  Christ  signified  a  willingness  to  snap 
every  tie  of  earth  or  home  or  material  success.  Jesus 
said,  '^Whosoever  doth  not  bear  his  own  cross  and 
come  after  me  cannot  be  my  disciple."  Devotion  to 
the  divine  objective  of  Jesus  for  humanity  accepts 


256  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

the  most  exacting  demands.  He  who  has  truly 
learned  is  willing.  This  willingness  proves  disciple- 
ship.  Without  it  there  are  no  diplomas.  Matt. 
16:21-28. 

Thus  we  perceive  that  a  disciple  is  a  well  rounded 
Christian  personality,  is  an  individual  excellently 
trained  in  the  fundamentals  of  religion,  in  the  ex- 
perience of  a  living  God  within,  in  the  ethical  ideals 
of  Jesus,  in  the  principles  which  are  essential  to  these 
ideals,  in  the  practice  of  those  principles  in  daily 
life,  in  the  science  of  kingdom  advancement  and  in 
the  faith,  courage,  stability,  and  aggressiveness  which 
are  indispensable  to  heroic  Christianity.  He  is  one 
who  has  learned  something  and  who  manifests  his 
religious  and  ethical  scholarship  in  his  ideas,  in  his 
spirit  and  in  his  service  for  hiunanity.  He  is  an 
educated  Christian.  He  has  passed  through  the  ele- 
mentary grades  and  has  proven  himself  capable  of 
meeting  successfully  any  test  his  teacher  imposes 
upon  him.  He  is  capable  of  teaching  and  becoming 
a  powerful  propagandist  in  the  interests  of  Christ's 
Kingdom. 

The  consideration  of  the  truth  regarding  this  sub- 
ject may  lead  many  of  us  to  ask,  "Who  then  are  dis- 
ciples ?"  "Are  there  any  in  the  world  ?"  "Have 
there  ever  been  any  ?"  Looking  back  through  Chris- 
tian history  we  find  many.  One  of  the  finest  types 
of  discipleship  is  disclosed  in  Paul.  He  was  far 
more  intelligent  concerning  the  significance  of  dis- 
cipleship than  any  of  the  immediate  followers  of 
Jesus  and  yet  none  as  holy,  brave,  unflinching,  sac- 
rificing and  as  devoted  to  the  Kingdom  ideal  of  Jesus, 
as  he.     (See  2  Cor.  11 :  22-31 ;  Phil.  3  :  7-16.) 

And  since  that  day  every  generation  of  Christian 


MAKING  DISCIPLES  257 

believers  lias  had  its  quota  of  men  and  women  who 
have  revealed  that  they  had  learned  the  lessons  of 
discipleship  and  were  absorbed  in  living  them  out  in 
daily  life.  In  every  church  in  this  world  today  in- 
cluding many  in  heathen  lands,  there  are  those  who 
beautifully  picture  the  meaning  of  the  word  disciple. 
Men  and  women  of  character  who,  up  to  their  finan- 
cial strength  and  mind  and  soul  capabilities,  are  pas- 
sionately devoted  to  Christ  and  his  Kingdom.  Hosts 
of  missionaries  who  have  left  all  and  given  the  life 
for  the  people  in  darkness.  There  is  not  a  better 
exposition  of  the  meaning  of  discipleship  than  the 
Student  Volunteer  movement.  Think  of  it !  5000 
young  men  and  women  of  culture,  the  very  cleanest 
and  strongest  of  the  land,  willing  and  glad  at  this 
moment  to  devote  their  lives  to  the  redemption  of 
humanity  anywhere  and  everywhere.  Dr.  John  R. 
Mott  is  as  great  and  outstanding  a  religious  person- 
ality to  this  age  as  Paul  was  to  his.  Williams,  the 
missionary  to  Eromanga,  said  to  a  chief  of  one 
Island,  who  refused  him  the  privilege  of  staying, 
■■'Very  well,  we  will  go  to  other  islands.  We  may 
(lie,  but  others  will  follow,"  He  was  soon  killed  and 
there  has  been  an  army  to  take  his  place. 

What  about  the  fathers  and  mothers,  sons  and 
daughters,  who  are  living  holy  lives,  above  reproach, 
who  are  noble  and  true  and  who  are  giving  their  all 
to  help  loved  ones  in  the  home,  to  relieve  the  poor, 
to  right  the  wrongs  about  them  and  to  make  this  world 
one  of  love  and  peace  ?  What  about  the  business  men 
who  are  devoting  time  and  money  even  to  20  percent 
of  their  income  to  the  cause  of  Christ  in  the  world  ? 
What  about  many  in  the  laboring  masses  who  are 
struggling  every  day  for  human  betterment  ?    Surely 


258  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

these  are  disciples  of  Jesus. 

The  definition  of  a  disciple  which  we  have  set 
forth,  is  true,  we  believe,  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
It  implies  developing  individuals  to  be  like  Jesus 
and  to  become  powerful,  aggressive  personalities  in 
the  great  cause  of  his  Kingdom.  With  this  fact  be- 
fore us,  we  understand  what  we  are  to  do.  The  great- 
ness of  the  church's  task  is  evident.  To  accomplish 
it,  we  shall  need  to  bring  humanity  in  touch  with 
the  truths  of  Jesus  by  the  study  of  the  ISTew  Testa- 
ment, we  shall  need  to  bring  them  under  the  influence 
of  his  spirit  in  prayer,  to  school  them  by  patient  work 
in  teaching,  to  make  the  church  a  place  where  dis- 
cipleship  is  intelligently  conceived,  and  where  dis- 
ciples are  truly  made.  Nothing  short  of  fully  trained 
believers  is  our  goal.  Any  methods  which  do  not  aim 
at  and  produce  these  results,  we  must  taboo.  Our 
work  as  churches  in  making  disciples  must  be  funda- 
mental, scientific,  thorough,  and  in  every  way  com- 
mensurate with  the  greatness  and  dignity  of  the  task 
given  to  us.  We  are  to  emphasize  intelligent,  spirit- 
ual, and  ethical  development  as  necessary  to  disciple- 
ship. 


CHAPTER   TWELVE 
THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY 

WITHOUT  question  the  greatest  fact  of  earth 
is  a  human  being,  and  the  outstanding  truth 
about  a  human  being  is  that  he  is  a  person,  (one 
who  has  a  mind,)  and  the  fact  of  greatest  significance 
about  this  person  is  that  he  is  a  personality.  We 
are  coming  to  realize  this  more  and  more  each  day 
and  the  emphasis  is  upon  personality  because  we  are 
discovering  the  fundamental  truth  of  the  universe. 
There  is  a  growing  conviction  among  all  thinking 
people  that  personality  is  not  only  the  key  to  the 
meaning  of  man,  but  also  of  nature  and  God.  Man 
has  been  studying  himself  and  the  universe  ever  since 
his  reason  asserted  itself  and  the  scholars  tell  us  that 
he  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  whole  affair, 
these  movements  of  material  things,  this  life  develop- 
ment about  us,  this  struggling,  laboring  human  na- 
ture, is  all  a  drama  of  personality.  Today  he  is  giv- 
ing himself  to  the  study  of  this  characteristic  of 
humanity  with  new  zeal,  conscious  that  every  branch 
of  science,  philosophy,  art,  industry  and  theology  is 
vitally  effected  by  it.  He  has  not  been  able  to  define 
it  perfectly  but  he  is  convinced  that  he  faces  a  fact 
and  that  this  fact  is  the  great  basic  one  of  all  crea- 
tion. So  impressed  is  he  with  this  that  he  seldom 
refers  to  man  as  soul  today,  the  terms  person  and 

personality  having  taken  that  place.    The  latter  terms 

259 


260  PEKSONAL  KELIGION 

are  stronger,  more  inclusive  and  more  appropriate 
in  view  of  religious  and  scientific  investigation.  This 
study  is  concerned  with  but  one  phase  of  the  subject 
of  personality,  namely,  its  power  in  the  development 
of  humanity  itself. 

Great  personalities  have  been  and  are  the  secret 
of  the  progress  of  the  world  in  all  realms  of  human 
activity.  The  history  of  the  human  race  is  after  all 
a  story  of  the  lives  of  its  heroes  and  heroines.  All 
mighty  movements  have  centred  in  some  person.  Men 
have  drawn  the  people  of  communities,  of  states  and 
of  nations  to  themselves.  Froude  represents  Julius 
Ca?sar  drawing  men  unto  him  as  a  magnet  draws  par- 
ticles of  iron  and  steel.  Another  has  said  that  the 
rude  Koman  soldiers  could  no  more  escape  his  mag- 
netic presence  than  they  could  dodge  the  gravity  of 
the  earth.  The  historian  tells  us  that  the  hand  grip 
of  ISTapoleon  was  like  a  powerful  electric  shock. 
Garibaldi  had  such  power  with  men  that  thousands 
of  Italy's  noblest  were  willing  to  follow  him  even 
to  a  martyr's  death.  The  birth  of  our  own  nation 
in  independence,  after  suffering  and  hardship,  was 
because  of  the  association  of  loyal  men  and  women 
around  George  Washington.  The  present  is  also  re- 
plete with  illustrations  of  the  same  truth.  Germany 
as  a  nation  today  is  rallying  to  the  personality  of  the 
Kaiser,  England  to  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  Lloyd 
George,  and  United  States  to  President  Wilson.  In 
fact  where  does  history  or  human  life  anywhere  in 
the  past  or  in  the  present  reveal  conspicuous  prog- 
ress, momentous  movements,  without  close  association 
with  some  outstanding  personality.  Every  nation  has 
its  King  or  Czar  or  President,  every  army  its  gen- 
eral, every  cause  its  leader,  and  every  home  its  head. 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY     261 

Dominant  personality  has  so  affected  the  human  race, 
that  one  said,  ''It  was  Socrates,  not  the  Athenians, 
who  gave  man  the  ideas  handed  down  to  us  by  his 
disciples,  Xenophoii  and  Plato ;  it  was  Onosar,  not  the 
Roman  legions,  who  conquered  Gaul,  invaded  Briton, 
vanquished  Pompey  and  unified  the  Roman  World ; 
it  was  Frederick  the  Great,  not  the  Prussian  army, 
who  kept  at  bay  the  three  great  European  powers 
for  seven  years;  it  was  Napoleon,  not  his  marshals, 
nor  even  the  spirit  of  the  Revolution,  who  entered 
nearly  every  capital  as  conqueror,  created  Kings,  and 
was  the  arbiter  of  Europe  for  a  dozen  years." 

The  world's  religious  movements  have  centred  in 
great  personalities.  In  the  primitive  religions  God 
was  more  or  less  unapproachable  but  as  time  went  on, 
man,  in  his  devotion  to  human  personality,  actually 
deified  himself.  He  could  not  get  near  God,  there- 
fore he  made  man  God.  The  story  of  Julius  Csesar 
is  familiar.  Shakespeare  said  he  was  the  foremost 
man  in  the  world,  but  because  of  his  many  triumphs, 
his  own  people  concluded  that  no  honor  was  too  high 
for  him  and  made  him  a  god.  His  statue  was  erected 
in  the  Capitol  and  another  bore  the  inscription 
"Caesar  the  demigod."  His  image  was  also  carried 
in  the  procession  of  the  gods.  This  reveals  the 
remarkable  power  of  personality  in  the  religious 
world.  In  pagan  life,  previous  to  this  time,  the  re- 
ligious leadership  of  Socrates,  Plato  and  Aristotle 
was  very  evident.  And  almost  contemporaneous  with 
them  Gautama,  surnamed  Buddha,  was  drawing  the 
people  of  India  to  himself  as  a  religious  leader.  And 
what  shall  we  say  of  the  prophets  of  Israel,  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah,  Hosea,  Micah  and  Malachi,  mighty  men 
of  religious  conviction  and  zeal  who  were  command- 


262  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

ing  the  attention  of  the  Jewish  people?  How  evi- 
dent it  is  that  the  religions  life  of  this  nation  was 
developed  around  these  noble  human  personalities. 
Then  when  we  consider  Christianity,  there  is  one  ma- 
jestic personality,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  stands  out 
in  bold  outline.  There  he  is  looming  up  against  the 
black  background  of  a  dissolute,  luxurious  pagan 
world,  and  a  fossilized  and  legalized  Judaism.  The 
religious  inclinations  of  the  school  of  Athens  had 
given  place  to  conceited  gossiping  about  everything 
new,  the  prophets  in  Israel  were  no  more,  the  dev- 
otee of  Judaism  was  worshipping  the  letter  and 
feeding  on  the  husk  of  religion  while  the  masses  of 
the  people  were  wandering  in  the  twilight  of  a  re- 
ligious consciousness  which  bordered  very  closely  on 
the  blackness  of  night.  Quietly  and  unostentatiously, 
Jesus,  the  Son  of  man,  arose  and  took  his  place  in 
human  life.  He  had  no  prestige  or  peculiar  preroga- 
tives which  would  startle  the  world.  He  was  the 
son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  a  very  humble  pair,  he 
labored  at  his  carpenter's  bench  during  the  day,  and 
developed  as  a  young  man  of  faith,  high  ideals,  and 
religious  zeal.  He  simply  had  a  life  to  live  and  to 
give  to  those  about  him.  At  thirty  years  of  age,  he 
began  his  public  ministry,  by  confessing  in  public 
baptism  loyalty  to  the  righteous  idealism  of  John 
the  Baptist.  He  became  a  religious  propagandist,  be- 
gan his  preaching  tours,  entered  into  religious  con- 
versation with  all  whom  he  could  reach,  performed 
wonderful  works  of  healing  and  soon  commanded  the 
attention  of  the  people  of  his  neighborhood  and  coun- 
try. It  was  not  long  before  crowds  of  people  were 
drawn  to  him,  listened  to  him,  considered  him,  and 
were  talking  about  him.    He  became  the  centre  of  the 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY     263 

life  of  the  people  in  Palestine.  He  was  the  topic  of 
conversation  in  town  and  city.  He  was  the  exponent 
of  a  religion  which  has  heen  named  after  him.  This 
religion  is  onrs  today,  nearly  two  thousand  years 
after.  From  him,  as  a  personality,  the  Christian 
religion  came  and  today  hundreds  of  millions  of  peo- 
ple on  the  earth  recognize  him  to  be  the  central  figure 
in  all  religious  history.  The  religious  life  of  the 
entire  globe  is  more  and  more  attracted  to  him.  To 
the  religion  which  was  personified  in  his  personality, 
the  world  owes  its  high  moral  idealism,  its  religious 
culture,  its  educational  advancement  and  its  humani- 
tarian development. 

These  considerations  lead  us  to  ask  what  is  the 
significance  of  human  personality  ?  Why  is  it  that 
all  movements  including  those  of  a  religious  nature 
start  with  and  depend  upon  the  genius  of  a  person? 
We  would  answer  first  of  all  because  personality  is 
the  basis  of  all  human  life  development,  God  him- 
self being  personality,  and  humanity  itself  being 
made  up  of  many  personalities,  forming  a  circle  of 
personalities  in  which  each  individual  one  moves. 
The  second  reason  is  because  of  the  capacity  of  per- 
sonality for  fellowship.  It  is  distinctively  social  in 
its  nature.  This  is  no  new  truth ;  others  have  stated 
that  Plato  recognized  it  in  his  Republic,  Jesus  em- 
phasized it  in  his  Kingdom  ideal  and  all  recall  Paul's 
words,  "None  liveth  unto  himself."  It  is  because 
the  true  self  never  comes  to  its  full  self  apart  from 
other  selves,  and  it  is  needed  in  fellowship  with  all 
other  selves,  to  complete  them,  that  personality  is  the 
secret  of  all  great  human  movements.  It  is  because 
the  interrelations  of  personality  are  integral  in  the 
structure  of  human  life  that  humanity  so  naturally 


264  PERSO^TAL  RELIGION 

clusters  about  a  personality.  God  made  it  so.  It  is 
not  a  freak  of  nature  but  a  part  of  the  divine  plan. 
Then  another  reason  is  because  of  the  contagion  of 
personality,  or  the  power  inherent  in  a  human  being 
to  influence  another.  Personality  is  a  centre  of  life 
power,  a  charged  entity.  It  can  move,  attack,  stick 
to,  effect  and  change.  No  person  is  walled  in,  unable 
to  reach  out  and  touch  others,  and  no  person  is  im- 
potent to  affect  others.  Intercommunication  is  be- 
cause of  power  to  move  out  toward  another.  This 
movement  produces  a  result.  This  result  is  what  we 
perceive  and  realize  in  great  human  movements. 
Some  personalities  are  particularly  strong,  they  have 
within  them  ability  of  mind,  an  intensity  of  nature, 
a  dynamic  of  soul  and  a  richness  of  life  which  over- 
flows to  others.  No  one  can  come  in  contact  with 
them  without  being  conscious  of  it.  We  meet  them, 
are  drawn  toward  them,  are  impressed  by  them  and 
are  made  stronger  for  having  been  with  them.  We 
go  away  refreshed,  vitalized  and  encouraged.  As  we 
have  heard  them  talk  we  have  been  led  to  think,  at 
times  have  felt  condemned,  then  aroused,  then  in- 
spired to  be  and  do.  This  is  all  because  of  the  con- 
tagion or  personality.  And  this  is  the  reason  why 
one  man  will  affect  a  whole  community,  will  direct 
an  entire  nation,  will  lead  a  race  of  people,  will  com- 
mand a  religious  following  and  change  the  history 
of  the  world. 

It  was  the  overflowing  of  the  divine  life  inherent 
within  the  personality  of  Jesus  that  gave  to  Chris- 
tianity its  early  remarkable  advancement.  The  re- 
ligious forces  of  the  universe  seemed  to  have  been 
summed  up  in  him.  He  arose  to  manhood  surcharged 
with  the  dynamic  power  of  God.    No  ordinary  human 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY    2C5 

personality  was  he.  Were  we  to  combine  the  orator- 
ical genius  of  a  Demosthenes,  the  philosophical  abil- 
ity of  a  Plato,  the  statesmanship  of  a  Lincoln,  the 
political  force  of  a  Mazzini  and  the  religious  fervor 
of  a  Paul  in  one  man,  we  would  yet  seek  for  some 
explanation  of  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ.  Amid  the 
fiercest  opposition,  an  opposition  which  eventually 
brought  on  his  death,  he  was  able  to  charm  the  people 
by  his  words,  to  win  those  first  disciples  to  his  ideals, 
imbue  them  with  his  spirit  and  secure  their  promise 
to  follow  him  anywhere  he  might  go.  They  did  not 
fully  understand  him,  they  failed  to  perceive  the  real 
genius  of  his  Kingdom  enterprise,  but  they  caught 
his  spirit  and  best  of  all  began  to  live  the  life  he 
outlined  for  them.  They  had  gotten  something  from 
him  which  made  them  new  men,  and  flaming  evangels 
of  a  new  message,  which  carried  them  forward  with 
irresistible  power,  which  enabled  them  to  bear  priva- 
tions and  suffering  most  severe  and  which  filled  them 
with  an  enthusiasm  that  kept  increasing  in  its  in- 
tensity as  the  years  went  by.  He  certainly  affected 
their  personalities.  They  were  sent  forth  to  affect 
other  personalities.  As  Socrates  affected  Plato,  and 
Plato  moved  Aristotle,  so  Jesus  affected  Philip  and 
Philip  moved  Nathaniel.  Not  that  the  personality  of 
Socrates  was  exactly  the  same  in  essence  or  power 
as  that  of  Jesus  but  the  method  was  identical,  namely 
the  contagion  of  personality.  Thus  Peter  caught  the 
contagion  from  Jesus  and  through  him  thousands  of 
others  at  one  time  and  it  was  not  long  before  the 
personality  of  Jesus  was  affecting  humanity  in  a 
large  area.  It  arrested  Paul  and  through  him  was 
carried  to  the  people  of  Asia  Minor  and  Greece  and 
Home  even  as  far  west  as  Spain  and  as  far  north 


266  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

as  England.  That  personality  has  affected  human- 
ity so  powerfully  by  contagion  through  other  human 
personalities  that  today,  1900  years  after  his  death, 
we  are  feeling  the  power  of  its  genius  and  life.  Some 
one  has  said — "The  divine  plan  seems  to  be  to  furnish 
a  splendid  specimen  in  the  realm  of  personality  and 
then  wait  for  humanity  to  reproduce  the  type.  One 
Luther — many  Protestants.  One  Wesley — many 
Methodists.  One  Shakespeare — many  poets.  One 
Raphael — many  painters.  One  Sankey — many  sing- 
ers. One  architect — many  builders.  One  Christ — 
and  millions  of  Christians." 

The  church  itself  is  the  result  of  the  contagion  of 
personality.  In  those  early  days  just  after  Jesus 
died  it  was  composed  of  companies  of  human  beings 
who  had  been  brought  together  by  meeting  those  who 
were  Christians,  and  adopting  Christian  faith. 
Within  100  years  after  Jesus  left  the  earth,  the  coun- 
try around  the  Mediterranean  was  dotted  with  com- 
munities of  Jesus'  disciples.  They  had  come  into 
being  as  the  direct  result  of  contact  with  other  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus,  therefore  it  was  the  contagion  of 
personality  which  had  accomplished  it.  Christians 
from  one  centre  went  to  and  affected  people  of  an- 
other, with  the  result  that  other  human  personali- 
ties received  the  Christ  spirit  through  them  and  new 
centres  of  Christian  life  were  started.  The  develop- 
ment of  Christianity  has  been  the  repetition  of  this 
process  down  through  the  centuries  since.  Christian- 
ity in  humanity  is  but  a  chain  of  linked  personali- 
ties from  Christ  to  the  present.  And  there  have 
been  practically  no  disciples  of  Jesus  made  except 
through  the  influence  of  some  person.  No  churches 
anywhere  during  all  this  time  have  been  founded 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PEKSONALITY    267 

which  cannot  be  traced  to  the  direct  contact  of  hu- 
man personality  upon  others.  If  an  experience  meet- 
ing could  be  held  in  any  Christian  church  in  this 
world  and  each  member  were  asked  to  tell  what  led 
him  to  decide  to  be  a  Christian  and  unite  with  the 
church,  the  answers  would  reveal  with  practically  no 
variation,  that  some  personality,  surcharged  with  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  had  gotten  into  contact  with  each  life 
and  had  influenced  the  true  self  Godward.  There 
would  be  a  long  list  of  the  names  of  preachers,  par- 
ents, brothers,  sisters,  husbands,  wives,  friends,  Sun- 
day School  teachers  and  others  who  had  helped  these 
to  joy  and  service  in  Jesus'  name.  And  probably  the 
one  individual,  the  single  personality,  which  would 
stand  out  as  being  the  most  potent  to  effect  this  result 
would  be  that  of  mother.  Not  sermons,  addresses, 
and  lessons  alone  but  these  plus  personality.  Not 
rebukes,  hints  and  invitations  but  these  plus  person- 
ality. Had  it  not  been  for  the  persons  themselves 
who  influenced  others  there  would  be  no  church 
today. 

It  is  also  true  that  the  maintenance  of  the  church 
is  secured  by  the  contagion  of  personality.  Who  can 
estimate  the  power  that  personality  has  in  keeping 
the  church  alive,  together,  active,  moving  onward, 
doing,  and  accomplishing?  Churches  are  companies 
of  living  human  beings  who  are  what  they  are  largely 
because  they  touch  each  other  and  contribute  to  each 
other's  development.  Receive  into  a  church  a  real 
boy,  who  desires  to  be  what  Jesus  would  have  him 
be  and  purposes  sincerely  to  follow  him,  and  all  recog- 
nize that  he  is  crude,  with  many  rough  edges,  with 
little  idea  of  what  it  implies  to  be  a  Christian.  Place 
around  him,  however,  mature,  strong  Christian  per- 


268  PEESOJSTAL  EELIGION 

sonalities,  keep  them  in  close,  sympathetic  touch  with 
him,  and  let  them  restrain,  educate,  inspire  and  de- 
velop him  as  God  wonld  have  them.  This  is  the 
contagion  of  personality.  It  literally  means  the  sal- 
vation of  the  boy.  God  intended  that  Christian  per- 
sonality should  be  used  to  develop  him  and  thus  to 
save  him.  There  are  many  people  of  years  in  our 
churches  today  who  owe  their  religious  development 
to  the  contact  and  influence  of  a  few  great  souls 
in  the  Christian  fraternity.  The  church  is  a  school 
of  Christ  in  which  Christianized  personality  is  the 
head  teacher.  Paul  used  a  simile  which  helps  us  to 
understand  this  power  of  personality  mutually  to 
minister  to  the  religious  development  of  humanity 
in  the  church.  He  writes  that  the  church  is  the 
body  and  Jesus  is  the  head.  The  members  of  the 
body  are  mutually  dependent  upon  each  other  and 
organically  united.  Through  this  organism  flows  the 
divine  life  from  the  head,  all  members  being  cor- 
related to  that  Head  Christ.  There  are  difterent 
capacities  and  functions  for  these  members,  and  all 
are  more  or  less  fragmentary  as  personalities.  No 
one  represents  the  Christ  or  Head  perfectly.  Each 
is  to  receive  from  the  Head  and  is  to  contribute 
something  to  the  good  of  every  other  one.  When 
one  personality  becomes  weak  or  diseased  by  sin,  the 
others  know  it  and  feel  it.  They  have  lost  just  so 
much.  It  is  the  privilege  of  each  personality  in  the 
church  body  to  be  fully  alive  to  the  head,  so  that  it 
can  contribute  all  it  should  toward  the  development 
of  the  other  personalities  in  the  body.  All  the  per- 
sonalities should  combine  and  assist  the  specially 
weak  personality  in  the  church,  that  each  may  grow 
to  its  full  experience  and  that  the  whole  may  present 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY     269 

a  beautiful  symmetry  of  moral  and  spiritual  life. 
As  these  personalities  touch  and  help  each  other,  the 
body,  or  the  church,  is  built  up. 

It  is  moreover  true  that  the  advance  of  humanity 
outside  of  the  church  toward  the  kingdom  idea  of 
Jesus  is  maintained  through  the  power  of  and  the 
response  to  personality.  The  spirit  which  moves  men 
forward  in  the  interest  of  that  Kingdom  is  caught 
by  the  contact  of  personality;  the  principles  which 
operate  to  secure  that  Kingdom  are  in  living  human 
beings  and  affect  hunianitv  for  its  betterment  through 
personality  and  the  objective  of  the  Kingdom  is  made 
the  world's  ideal  as  personality  touches  personality 
in  the  common  walks  of  life.  Today  we  are  wit- 
nessing great  movements  for  the  moral,  physical  and 
spiritual  uplift  of  humanity  outside  of  the  Christian 
church,  which  are  unquestionably  in  the  program  of 
Christ,  and  these  have  originated  through  the  con- 
tagion of  personality  and  are  perpetuated  in  the 
same  way.  As  men  and  women  of  ideas  and  pas- 
sions meet,  they  affect  each  other  and  their  impress 
upon  society  is  the  secret  of  the  development  of  hu- 
manity toward  the  Christ  ideal.  Today,  in  indus- 
try, education,  government  and  church,  our  states- 
men and  stateswomen  are  working  hard  on  no  less 
a  problem  than  this, — how  best  to  translate  the  ideals, 
spirit  and  principles  of  Jesus  Christ  into  the  laws 
and  the  activities  of  a  world  life.  It  is  because 
personality  has  vision,  passion  and  hope,  that  these 
efforts  are  being  made  and  glorious  results  are  being- 
obtained.  Surely  the  Kingdom  is  to  come  by  the 
contagion  of  personality. 


270  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

THE    GENIUS    OF    THIS    CONTAGION 

We  are  sure  that  men  and  women  move  others  and 
influence  others  into  Christian  life  by  the  faculties 
which  the  totality  of  their  personalities  reveal,  and 
all  powers  of  mind  and  soul  and  even  body  are  sacred 
and  to  be  used  to  this  end,  but  after  all,  what  is 
the  fundamental  essence  of  this  contagion  ?  What  in- 
fluences man  most  toward  the  life  which  Jesus  would 
have  him  live  ?  What  part  of  the  personality  affects 
him  most  seriously  and  lastingly  ?  It  is  that  in  men 
which  in  Jesus  touched  humanity  most  deeply, 
namely,  his  character.  It  was  not  definitions  of  him 
but  the  fact  of  his  pure  spirit  and  lofty  purpose  and 
high  ideals.  It  was  his  quality  of  heart  that  drew 
them  and  held  them  to  him.  His  miracles  startled 
men  for  a  while  but  as  one  studies  the  effect  of 
Jesus'  personality  upon  humanity  through  the  cen- 
turies, as  well  as  when  he  lived,  he  is  led  to  state 
that  it  has  been  just  one  wonderful  reality  about  him 
that  has  drawn  the  world  to  him  and  that  is  the 
reality  of  his  goodness.  Goodness  was  the  genius 
of  his  power  over  men  and  it  is  goodness  today  that 
forms  the  essential  force  of  the  contagion  of  per- 
sonality. God  has  made  goodness  catching.  It  pos- 
sesses an  irresistible  power.  Men  may  escape  the 
logic  of  argument,  and  the  brilliancy  of  intellect  and 
even  the  deduction  of  achievement,  but  they  cannot 
elude  the  power  of  character.  It  forever  follows 
them,  daily  confronts  them,  constantly  impresses 
them  and  mightily  moves  them.  Character  pene- 
trates the  soul.  It  secures  a  vantage  point  in  the 
true  self  of  man  and  pierces  his  spiritual  vitals.  It 
can  get  in  where  nothing  else  enters.     There  are  no 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY     271 

himian  beings  who  are  impervious  to  the  power  of 
goodness  in  another.  Ask  any  one  how  he  was  led 
to  yield  his  heart  to  Christ  and  he  will  tell  you  of 
the  goodness  which  shone  forth  from  the  life  of 
some  friend  or  loved  one.  He  may  have  been  moved 
by  a  sermon  but  the  sermon  was  powerful  only  as 
it  was  backed  by  the  presence  of  character.  It  was 
the  momentum  of  goodness  that  moved  him.  Ask  any 
one  how  it  came  to  be  that  he  aspired  to  goodness 
and  he  will  answer  that  it  was  the  response  of  his 
soul  to  the  love,  truth  and  righteousness  which  he 
recognized  in  another.  Thus  we  realize  that  the  gen- 
ius of  the  contagion  of  personality  is  goodness,  in 
possessing  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  treating  our  fellow- 
men  as  he  would  have  us,  and  serving  humanity  in 
unselfish  devotion  to  its  interests. 

We  ask  why  is  this?  Simply  because  the  soul  of 
man  is  tuned  to  character.  The  Kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  built  upon  it.  Were  it  to  be  founded  on 
power,  then  great  feats  of  strength  in  others  would 
arouse  men  to  be  Christians ;  and  Hercules  would  be 
the  master  personality ;  were  it  founded  on  perfection 
of  physical  form,  then  the  sight  of  a  graceful  figure 
would  awaken  men  to  the  Christ  ideal  and  Venus  de 
Milo  would  be  the  goddess  of  the  Christian  faith ; 
were  it  founded  on  artistic  beauty  of  nature,  then 
the  paintings  of  the  Masters  would  insure  Christian- 
ity and  Rembrandt  and  Rosa  Bonheur  would  be  the 
commanding  personalities  of  the  world.  But  because 
it  is  based  on  goodness  and  nothing  less,  men  respond 
to  character  in  being  led  into  the  Christian  life  and 
Jesus  is  the  central  personality  of  the  world.  This 
also  makes  plain  to  us  why  character  was  the  goal 
of  Jesus'  salvation  for  men.     There  is  no  wav  his 


272  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

ideal  in  personal  religion  and  the  Kingdom  can  be 
reached  except  as  personality  responds  to  character 
and  perpetuates  it  through  contact  with  other  per- 
sonalities until  humanity  becomes  at  heart  and  in  life 
what  he  would  have  it,  that  is  good.  The  history 
of  Christianity  is  a  history  of  the  perpetuation  of 
goodness.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  spirit  of  love  of 
righteousness,  of  unselfishness  and  of  service  or  the 
spirit  of  character.  As  this  works  in  man,  the  con- 
tagion of  personality  is  divine.  Goodness  is  the 
basis  of  spiritual  power.  The  baptism  of  the  Spirit 
is  a  baptism  of  goodness  and  unselfishness.  No  man 
has  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit  apart  from  such 
goodness.  Spiritual  power  may  be  more  or  less 
psychic,  and  mystical  but  it  cannot  work  distinct 
from  spiritual  character  or  goodness. 

The  significance  of  the  contagion  of  personality 
in  the  Christian  development  of  humanity  is  evi- 
dent in  view  of  these  considerations.  There  are  some 
conclusions  which  are  inevitable.  We  recognize  that 
the  primary  business  of  the  disciples  is  to  be  good. 
Conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  greatest  potency  of  a 
personality  is  in  character,  that  others  are  won  to 
Christ  and  his  ideals  through  the  contagion  of  gen- 
uine goodness  of  being,  our  greatest  anxiety  should 
be  to  be  like  Jesus  Christ  in  spirit,  principle  and 
action.  We  do  not  need  a  morbid  introspection  which 
enlarges  upon  moral  and  spiritual  excrescences,  or  a 
religious  discontent  which  discounts  every  evidence 
of  Christian  progress  in  the  soul  and  life  and  tends 
to  rob  one  of  all  joy  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
ideal  which  Jesus  has  for  us  is  so  far  from  being 
realized,  but  we  do  need  a  devotion  to  Christ,  a 
thought  and  love  for  Christlikeness,  and  a  passion 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY    273 

to  be  genuinely  good  clear  through  and  this  in  view 
of  discharging  the  obligations  of  personality,  or  do- 
ing personal  work  in  the  world  among  men  in  the 
interests  of  Christ's  kingdom.  Goodness  is  active. 
It  reaches  out  to  others.  It  issues  in  service.  This 
service  to  others  is  potent  to  lead  humanity  to  Christ. 
The  contagion  of  personality,  through  its  primary 
quality,  character  which  issues  in  service,  is  the 
most  powerful  moral  and  religious  force  in  the  world, 
therefore  in  view  of  Christ  and  humanity,  we  must 
be  actively  good.  Knowing  that  hypocrisy  blocks 
all  religious  contagion,  the  demand  to  be  genuinely 
good  in  view  of  aggressive  work  for  Christ,  is  evi- 
dent. One  wonders  if  the  real  reason  why  so  little 
personal  religious  work  is  done  is  because  of  the  con- 
sciousness which  many  have  of  a  serious  deficiency 
in  character.  What  is  nobler  than  to  be  good  for 
others  ? 

We  also  recognize  the  necessity  of  making  full  use 
of  the  personality  in  helping  humanity  to  a  true  re- 
ligious experience  and  in  securing  the  Kingdom  ob- 
jective of  Jesus.  With  the  facts  plainly  before  us, 
namely  that  an  active  personality  is  the  secret  of  the 
religious  advancement  of  the  human  race,  that  hu- 
manity is  Christianized  as  the  powers  of  personality 
are  in  contact  with  other  human  personalities,  that 
the  salvation  of  mankind  is  secured  by  the  flow  of 
the  spirit  of  God  through  one  to  another,  we  clearly 
perceive  the  need  of  using  all  these  powers  within  us 
for  the  good  of  those  about  us.  This  makes  the 
work  of  individuals  for  individuals  imperative.  The 
touch  of  the  individual  person  for  Christ  and  his 
kingdom  is  not  only  legitimate  but  necessary.  Jesus 
touched  his  first  disciples,  they  made  the  point  of 


274  PEKSONAL  EELIGIOK 

contact  with  others,  and  so  on  down  through  the 
centuries  until  today  and  this  is  our  day  for  contact. 
The  salvation  of  those  about  us,  and  the  progress 
of  Christ's  kingdom  depend  upon  us.  The  evolution 
of  Christianity  must  go  on  through  us  to  those  about 
us.  The  spirit  of  God  is  pressing  from  within  ua 
to  move  outward  toward  others  that  they  may  have 
what  we  have,  may  know  what  we  know,  may  learn 
what  we  have  learned  and  may  do  what  we  are  doing. 
This  is  the  law  of  the  contagion  of  personality.  The 
divine  forces  which  are  operating  in  the  world  toward 
securing  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  are  working 
through  spiritualized  personalities,  that  is,  human  be- 
ings whose  moral  natures  are  energized  with  the  spirit 
of  God.  True  evangelism  means  the  effort  to  bring 
men  into  intelligent  and  vital  touch  with  the  source 
of  all  spiritual  power,  God,  and  this  by  Jesus  Christ 
through  whom  he  is  made  known  to  men  today. 
Therefore  the  winning  of  the  individual  to  Christ 
signifies  that  a  human  personality  with  all  its  pos- 
sibilities is  made  a  channel  for  the  flow  of  spirit- 
ual forces  of  the  universe,  and  personal  evangelism 
is  important.  This  work  is  essential  to  the  coming 
of  the  Kingdom.  With  the  progress  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God  dependent  upon  us  we  realize  the  privilege  and 
necessity  of  thrusting  forth  personality.  We  are  to 
make  the  social  nature  count,  let  the  hand  clasp  be 
contagious  with  affectionate  regard  and  every  faculty 
potent  to  impress,  lead  and  win. 

It  also  furnishes  us  with  a  rational  basis  for  ap- 
peal to  men.  Because  of  it  we  understand  the  place 
of  the  conversational  religious  message  in  the  econ- 
omy of  the  Kingdom.  We  know  that  the  personality 
has  a  physical  voice  as  well  as  a  moral  and  spiritual 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY     2Y5 

one.  It  emphasizes  the  divine  art  of  oral  preach- 
ing. It  makes  personality  the  vehicle  for  the  glad 
tidings  of  God's  love  and  helpfulness.  Consciousness 
of  it  helps  one  to  appreciate  the  others'  view  point 
and  life.  It  leads  one  into  a  religious  conversation, 
not  because  he  assumes  an  air  of  superiority,  but  as 
the  mutual  interchange  of  personality.  It  makes  this 
conversation  normal.  It  helps  one  to  know  that  only 
as  personalities  have  free  intercourse  are  they  devel- 
oped. And  experience  reveals  that  people  are  awak- 
ened and  helped  by  that  personal  appeal,  when  it  is 
the  natural  outflow  of  one  person  to  another.  It  is 
not  always  as  it  was  in  the  early  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era,  namely  the  announcement  of  a  new 
religion.  This  may  be  so  today  in  heathen  lands, 
but  in  our  country  it  is  sounding  the  religious  con- 
sciousness of  others,  entering  into  their  problems,  lov- 
ingly assisting  them  when  the  opportimity  offers, 
and  making  real  to  them  the  message  of  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Religious  conversation  is  simply 
the  overflow  of  the  well  filled  personality.  "Out  of 
the  abundance  of  the  heart,  the  mouth  speaketh." 
This  makes  religion  as  rational  a  subject  as  health, 
business  or  any  other  matter,  and  much  more  than 
some  other  matters. 

It  also  makes  reasonable  the  use  of  the  psycho- 
logical powers  of  man  upon  others.  Without  con- 
tradicting the  fact  that  the  primary  power  of  per- 
sonality to  move  others  Christward  is  that  of  charac- 
ter, yet  there  are  coupled  with  this  certain  mental 
and  psychic  powers  which  are  ordained  of  God  to 
assist  in  moving  an  irresponsive  humanity  to  decision 
and  action  for  Christ  and  goodness.  I  am  sure  that 
a  great  many  good  men  hesitate  about  making  the 


276  PEESONAL  RELIGION 

personal  religious  appeal  to  others,  and  shrink  from 
active  efforts  to  win  men  to  Christ  and  the  church  sim- 
ply because  they  fear  the  possibility  of  undue  influ- 
ence. Conscious  of  the  fact  that  character  can  never 
be  forced,  and  that  a  man's  faith  in  Christ  and  his 
turning  to  him  and  his  ideals  must  be  of  his  own 
accord  and  as  the  result  of  the  response  of  his  own 
soul  to  Christ's  claims  and  opportunities  for  Chris- 
tian life  and  service,  many  a  thinking  man  refrains 
from  approaching  him  and  pleading  with  him  in 
order  to  secure  his  alinement  with  Christ  and  the 
Kingdom  forces,  because  he  questions  the  wisdom  of 
pressing  his  personality  upon  another.  He  hates  co- 
ercion, he  repudiates  intimidation,  and  he  even  ques- 
tions persuasion.  He  says  each  man  must  act  for 
himself.  He  would,  even  if  he  did  approach  him, 
do  it  in  a  passive  manner  and  leave  him  alone  to 
decide.  Another  would  not  go  near  him  at  all.  Sim- 
ply let  the  spirit  of  God  touch  him,  and  invite  him 
in  some  peculiar  nonpersonal  way.  But  this  is  not 
as  God  would  have  it.  We  are  to  know  that  the 
powers  of  personality  are  calculated  by  him  to  be 
used  to  influence  others.  If  this  were  not  true  there 
would  be  no  contagion  of  personality.  And  we  are 
not  to  think  that  the  use  of  psychic  and  mental  forces 
within  our  natures  is  necessarily  evil,  but  rather 
good  and  ordained  by  God  to  help  the  world  onward 
in  its  religious  and  moral  development.  It  is  not  only 
proper  but  necessary  that  there  be  an  outgo  of  these 
powers  to  others  in  order  to  secure  the  advancement 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  No  normal  func- 
tion of  the  human  personality  is  to  be  considered 
even  dangerous  when  used  as  God  would  have  it  and 
every  function  is  to  be  utilized  to  its  full  in  the  right 


THE  CONTAGIOlSr  OF  PERSONALITY     277 

manner.  This  does  not  sanction  the  hypnotism  of 
some  evangelists  or  the  bulldozing  dominance  of  some 
powerful  personalities  in  forcing  and  rushing  men 
into  the  Kingdom,  but  it  does  sanction  the  surround- 
ing of  another  person  with  all  the  mental  and  sug- 
gestive powers  of  one's  personality.  There  are  in 
this  world  many  people  who  need  just  this  touch  and 
influence  to  move  their  dormant  souls  to  respond  to 
the  calls  of  Christ.  Justin  Martyr  waited  for  the 
touch  of  John  the  Aged,  Augustine  for  the  influence 
of  his  mother  Monica,  Martin  Luther  for  the  call  of 
old  David  Stanpitz,  John  B.  Gough  for  the  pressure 
of  Joe  Stratten,  and  the  history  of  every  soul  triumph 
records  the  presence  of  some  one  who  helped  mightily 
by  the  contact  of  his  personality.  There  are  few  of  us 
who  cannot  discriminate  intelligently  between  the 
undue  pressure  of  our  wills  and  psychic  powers  upon 
another  and  that  legitimate  influence  of  personality 
which  is  evidently  so  indispensable  in  moving  men 
toward  what  God  would  have  them  be.  There  is  no 
doubt  in  my  own  mind  that  the  movement  of  men  to 
"go  forward"  and  confess  Christ  in  great  revival  mass 
meetings  is  accomplished  largely  by  the  power  of 
mental  concentration  exerted  by  thousands  of  Chris- 
tians who  are  thinking  of,  praying  for,  and  pleading 
with  them,  but  who  shall  say  that  all  of  this  is  wrong 
and  no  one  should  mentally  impress  any  one  for  his 
good?  There  is  a  power  of  personality  revealed 
here  which  may  legitimately  be  used.  We  may  ra- 
tionally conclude  that  the  Holy  Spirit  works  through 
the  normal  functions  of  personality.  God  is  thus 
touching  many  by  forces  which  he  has  created  and 
according  to  laws  of  human  development  which  he 
has  made.     All  laws  of  human  progress  are  divine. 


2Y8  PERSONAL  RELIGION 

It  makes  real  our  responsibility  in  kingdom  prog- 
ress. If  the  personality  is  so  central  in  all  Christian 
work,  if  so  much  depends  upon  it  because  God  has 
ordained  its  place  and  its  functions,  think  what  re- 
sponsibility rests  upon  each  one  to  make  the  most 
of  himself  and  to  use  his  powers  to  advance  the  cause 
of  Christ  on  earth.  Timidity  must  be  laid  aside, 
prejudice  must  be  overcome  and  preconceptions  must 
be  changed.  The  individual  must  move  out  into  all 
forms  of  Christian  endeavor.  His  business  is  to  en- 
list men  for  Christ,  to  lead  them  to  unite  with  the 
church,  to  line  up  their  powers  in  the  interest  of 
the  Kingdom,  to  bring  about  needed  reforms,  to  in- 
fluence men's  judgments  in  municipal,  state  and  na- 
tional affairs,  to  make  everything  he  has  in  himself 
crtunt  for  the  good  of  humanity  about  him.  He  has 
the  power  to  do  this.  It  is  in  his  personality,  there- 
fore, His  Lord  is  to  hold  him  responsible.  Not  only 
are  individuals  needing  him,  but  the  world  needs 
him.  A  passive  Christian  personality  is  a  misnomer. 
If  one  is  Christian,  actively  loves,  and  makes  his 
personal  contact  with  others,  he  influences  others 
to  make  definite  decision  for  Christ  and  to  line  up 
with  his  organized  work,  he  arouses  dormant  poten- 
tialities in  humanity  and  brings  about  by  contagion, 
great  reformations  and  genuine  regenerations  in  in- 
dividual life  and  in  society.  He  who  accepts  his 
responsibility  as  a  Christian  personality  will  be  doing 
this.  He  may  be  able  to  do  one  thing  better  than 
another  but  he  will  endeavor  to  do  something  surely. 
He  will  labor  to  have  his  personality  as  large  and 
capable  as  possible,  that  it  may  be  a  dynamic  of  con- 
tagion for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  human- 
ity.    Think  what  the  world  would  be  if  all  the  fol- 


THE  CONTAGION  OF  PERSONALITY    279 

lowers  of  Christ  in  the  church  and  out,  were  to  let 
God  use  their  personalities  to  the  full  in  helping 
individuals  to  religious  experience  and  in  establishing 
among  men  the  Kingdom  of  love  and  righteousness. 
We  have  no  right  to  pass  people  by,  to  say  nothing 
about  their  deeper  interests.  God  is  depending  upon 
us.  It  is  wrong  to  ask  him  to  do  his  work  apart  from 
us.  He  has  ordained  that  our  personalities  be  the 
channels  of  his  power  to  accomplish  his  will. 


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